372 GARDENING. 



by throwing the first spadeful of earth into the bottom of the hole 

 you have dug; this done, you throw the second spadeful, which 

 ^ou have dug up nearly a foot lower than the first, on the top of 

 the other, and by doing so you bury the first spadeful as you would 

 .a dead puppy, under the second. By this means you have brought 

 new earth, which has not been exhausted by having anything grown 

 on it for at least a year, on the surface, which earth has double the 

 growing strength in it to that which you have buried. The digging 

 done, as we have directed, and the last trench filled up with the 

 earth moved to the other end of the bed for that purpose, now 

 make the bed a little decent, by raking off the stones and such 

 like, then cast your seed in radish, carrot, parsnip, or onion 

 as evenly and regularly as you can. And now the seed is in, can 

 you get on the bed and do " The Gardener's Dance?" Never 

 saw it ! Well, then, we'll teach you the steps. Get on the bed, 

 put your feet close together, so that the insides of your shoes touch 

 each other, now keep them close together all the time, then move 

 first one foot and then the other, about two inches in advance at a 

 time, still making the sides of your shoes touch all the time. Now 

 cut away as hard as you like, and in as straight a line as you can ; 

 up and down, off we go, and that is the "Gardener's Dance ;" the 

 seeds are well trampled in. Now take the rake and smooth down 

 al the pretty little ridges you made through dancing, and the work 

 is done. 



Unless the ground is wretchedly poor indeed, a bed prepared in 

 the way we have shown will grow almost every kind of vegetable, 

 such as peas, greens, potatoes, though the two latter must be put in 

 with a dibber, supposing the greens to be transplanted. The best 

 dibber is a broken spade handle, cut down to a point, it makes a 

 capital hole in the ground, into which you may either drop a broad 

 bean, a potato cutting, or thrust in a cabbage-plant. 



Any boy can lay a bed out straight, who has a piece of string, 

 two wooden pegs, and half an eye in his head ; it is not half so diffi- 

 cult as drawing out the diagram before playing at " Hop-skotch." 

 As to hoeing and raking, it is an insult against common-sense to tell 

 any lad how to do that, for little fellows who are not breeched will 

 get the old gardener's rake and hoe the very instant his back is 

 turned, and set to work as if ll to the manner born." And 

 pleasant it is after " the winter is over and gone," to see the 

 primroses which have been lying in the garden all the year long, 

 once more shoot out their fresh green crisp leaves ; and the hyacinths 

 heave up their concave dark green spear shapes and sheaths ; while 

 the crocus sends from its bulb the long grassy- looking shoots which 

 .are streaked down the centre like a ribbon, and the lupina, whose 

 leaves are the most beautiful of all, darts up from its old root those 

 twelve-leaved cup-shaped stems, which hold the spring-rain, and 

 look like emerald vases filled with crystals. All these are up and 

 out looking at the sun by the middle of February, if the weather is 

 mild, while the sharp-pointed gladioli pierce through the ground like 

 a spear, and the dusky southernwood shows its grey green amongst 



