NORFOLK SOCIETY. 393 



Another error committed by many good hands at spading, 

 is breaking the clods too fine. This beautiful dressing, which 

 makes the surface look so handsome and even and is consid- 

 ered quite an attainment by some gardeners, is by no means 

 desirable ; the earth should be left as open as possible in rea- 

 son so that air and moisture may have free access. 



These observations should be attended to by young hands 

 particularly, as a habit of careless spading is not readily 

 changed. Careless spading, in fact, is nothing but shovelling. 



Suppose, then, spading to be thoroughly done, the next 

 question is, how does it compare in value with ploughing or 

 other methods of stirring the soil ? The plough generally pen- 

 etrates the soil from five to seven inches; the furrows are 

 turned so that the top of the land is only partially reversed, 

 and the sods of grass do not decay, but vegetate and use up a 

 portion of the manure with which the land is dressed. On 

 the other hand, the spade penetrates nine inches, the upper 

 surface is placed underneath, and any gi-ass sods may, by care, 

 be so completely reversed that they decay and serve as food 

 for plants, instead of appropriating that w^hich was not in- 

 tended for them. 



The soil at about eight inches below the surface is always 

 the richest, particularly in light lands, as the pieces of manure, 

 leached down by rains, is generally retained by it; hence the 

 value of having it near the surface. 



The experiment has often been tried to ascertain the com- 

 parative value of spading and ploughing, and although, of 

 course, the first is the most expensive, yet the excess of pro- 

 ductiveness of the spaded land has often more than repaid the 

 excess of expense. 



An eminent horticulturist in the vicinity of Boston has, for 

 the last six or seven years, pursued the following practice of 

 spading, with the best success. In the autumn his land is dug 

 over, leaving eighteen inches from the centre of the trench to 

 the crown of each ridge. In the spring his manure, (chiefly 

 guano and gypsum, although any other manure would an- 

 swer,) is strewed in the trenches where it is turned over by the 

 spade. A portion of one ridge, about two inches in depth, is 

 drawn over this, the seed sown, and the other portion of the 

 ridge raked over them, or cabbages may be planted in the 

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