12 The Profitable Culture of Vegetables. 



pheric influences can have full effect upon it; when this is 

 done the physical character of the soil is greatly improved. 



FIRST SECTION. 



SECOND SECTION. 



Plan showing method of Bastard Trenching a large piece of ground. 



Deep cultivation on clay soil should never be attempted 

 until provision is made for the removal of surplus water. In 

 many instances enthusiastic novices have dug such land two 

 and even three spits deep, but by neglecting draining have 

 made the conditions worse than they found them. In the 

 absence of under-draining deep working on clay soil simply 

 forms a basin with impervious sides and bottom, which in a 

 wet season becomes a veritable swamp. When pipe drains 

 are omitted the land should be laid up in narrow beds with 

 rather deep furrows between to draw off the water. The beds 

 should run with the fall of the land, and all the furrows should 

 be connected with cross furrows which lead the water away 

 from the cultivated land to the nearest ditch or pond. In such 

 a case care should be taken to keep an even fall in the furrows 

 so that the water can get away readily, and the soil should 

 never be worked lower than the depth of the furrow. 



Ridging, particularly in the case of heavy soil, is a very 

 valuable method of laying up land at the approach of winter ; 

 by this means a much greater extent of surface is exposed to 

 the action of the weather than when the land is laid flat. If 

 the ridges are not too wide the soil gets frozen through, the 

 clods broken down, insect pests destroyed, plant foods liberated, 



