SOILS. 61 



"We had a piece of soil the surface of which was about 

 a foot deep of black vegetable mould, with a slight admix- 

 ture of sand, resting on a stiff clay subsoil, which pre- 

 vented the water from passing off. In this condition we 

 found it entirely unfit for trees ; we subsoil ploughed it 

 six or eight inches deep, turning up the clay subsoil and 

 mixing it with the surface ; we also drained it, and spread 

 over the surface the clay that came out of the drains, and 

 in this condition we find it producing the finest trees, 

 especially apples, pears, and plums. The soil is more 

 substantial, and the surface water passes off freely. 



2. TRENCHING. 



In gardens too limited in extent to admit of ploughs, or 

 where it is desired to make the soil thorough and perma- 

 nently deep, trenching is the means. 



The spade is the implement used in this operation. A 

 trench two feet wide is opened on one side of the ground, 

 and the earth taken out of it is carried to the opposite 

 side. Another trench is opened, the surface spadeful be- 

 ing thrown in the bottom, and the next lower on the top 

 of that, and so on till it is opened the required depth, 

 which, for a good fruit garden, should be about two feet. 

 If the subsoil be poor and gravelly, it is better to loosen 

 it up thoroughly with a pick, and let it remain, than to 

 throw it out on the surface. When the whole plot is 

 trenched over in this way, the earth taken out of the first 

 trench will fill up the last one, and the work is done. If 

 the soil be poor, a layer of well-decomposed manure may 

 be added alternately with the layers of earth ; and if the 

 soil be too light and sandy, clay, ashes, etc., can be added ; 

 and if too heavy, sand, lime, muck, peat, scrapings of dead 

 leaves from the woods, or any other material calculated to 

 render it porous and friable. If a garden is thus trenched 



