146 THEORY OF TRENCHING. 



As nature*^ best bounty is depth of soil, so trench- 

 ing, which intimates that gift, is beyond all doubt 

 the very greatest of all the improvements which man 

 can make on the surface of the ground. Whether 

 for garden or field, there is herein a secret virtue, 

 which even at this late period is but little disclosed. 

 Compare the millions of acres on which men have 

 for centuries only scraped a few inches with the 

 plough, and see how little of the land yielding bread 

 has yet submitted to a more substantial cultivation. 

 The same seeds are ever committed to the same 

 particles of mould; some of them now scarcely 

 vegetate, and crops of other sorts, but recently in- 

 troduced, are not what they were. Man cannot 

 create a new plant to diversify the labours of the 

 earth in her productions, but man can bring up new 

 earth to the task of producing: this is the true 

 power which nature has given him, and which he 

 has yet scarcely learned to exert. When an acre 

 of ground sells for fifty pounds, and its depth of 

 soil is only six inches, it is certain that the same 

 portion may be made as well worth a hundred 

 pounds by doubling the depth of its soil; and one 

 fourth of this profit would be sufficient to cover the 

 expence of the operation. It is said that the man 

 who plants a tree is a benefactor of his species, 

 and so he is; but that man is more the benefactor of 

 his species who trenches as much ground as a tree will 

 cover; for the tree dies and the ground is no better 

 than it was; but that which is trenched has received 

 a benefit which it will not lose till the end of time. 



