SITUATION, SOIL, CHAP. 



the land on which the bank stood ; but have never, in 

 any instance, been able to make it, even at the end of 

 several years, equal to the land adjoining it. The truth 

 is, this ground had been so long out of the reach of the 

 influence of the elements, the sun, the frosts, the snows, 

 the air, the rains and the dews, that it was not fit for 

 performing that which earth will not perform without the 

 assistance of these elements. 



24. Therefore, in the work of trenching, the top soil 

 must be kept at the top. This is to be done with the 

 greatest facility imaginable, and with comparatively very 

 little additional expense. Having, in THE WOODLANDS, 

 given full directions for the performing of this work, I 

 have here little more to do than to repeat that which I 

 have said there, accompanying my instructions with an 

 explanatory plate. This I may lawfully do, it being only 

 purloining from myself 5 this method never having been 

 pointed out by any other writer on the subject, as far as I 

 have observed j nor have I perceived that even the thought 

 ever entered the mind of any other man. Yet the reader 

 will perceive, that, without pursuing this method, it would 

 be impossible to make a good garden in some kinds of soil. 



25. The piece of ground that I propose to be made 

 into a garden, will be, from outside to outside, ten, rods 

 wide and fifteen rods long. This piece of ground ought 

 to be marked into strips, or lifts, each a rod wide, in the 

 manner described in the opposite page. This division 

 into narrow strips takes place, because the earth which 

 comes out of the first trench must go to fill up the last 

 trench ; and, therefore, in this case, there would be 



