26 Subsoil Cultivation. [Jan., 



Trenching ground by spade husbandry more legitimately be- 

 longs to the Horticultural department; and even in that it does 

 not receive that extensive patronage it demands; and as I must 

 have one word to say on that subject, I do not think I can do it 

 better than by giving in detail the modus operandi, as performed 

 on a piece of ground here two years ago, together with the suc- 

 cess attending the result. In December, 1843, a piecQ of ground, 

 the poorest and shallowest belonging to this establishment, the 

 surface soil having been nearly all washed awa}', the subsoil a stiff 

 clay with a great portion of slate rock, an openmg was made at 

 one end two feet wide by two feet deep, and the w^hole piece of 

 ground trenched to that depth, that is turned over, the top spit of 

 earth turned to the bottom and the bottom brought to the top, and 

 all the large rocks taken out to that depth. This may appear a 

 very tedious and expensive process, but there is more in the idea, 

 than in the reality ; and for small orchards, and fruit, and vegetable 

 gardens, money and time thus spent is vv'ell invested. This piece 

 of ground was laid up rough for pulverization by frost, &c., dur- 

 ing winter, and in spring, had a top dressing with a compost of 

 manure, muck, lime, and some coal ashes, and planted mostly with 

 imported fruit trees of new kinds, for specimens, to prove them, 

 and as is generally the case with new and rare kinds, the plants 

 were small and feeble, and rendered still more feeble, by a long 

 sea voyage; and being packed and out of the ground a longtime. 

 Notwithstanding all this, they nearly all lived and made vigorous 

 growths, when the transplanted trees in other parts of the grounds 

 were dying by hundreds from the very dry season of the early 

 part of the summer of 1844, (up to the middle of July,) which 

 is the most trying time for newly transplanted trees; but the great 

 trial was the past summer. A similar lot of trees were received 

 last spring, and planted on a portion of the same ground; and 

 during the unparalleled drought of the past summer, they not only 

 lived, but made considerable growth, while the newly transplanted 

 trees, comprising many thousands here and elsewhere, were dying 

 wholesale. There has been also planted on this piece of ground, 

 gooseberries, currants, raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb, &c., all 



