SITUATION, SOIL, CHAP. 



pretty nearly a hundred cart-loads of earth to be carted, 

 or wheeled, from one end of the piece to the other : 

 whereas, by proceeding in the way of strips, you fill up 

 the trench with hardly any wheeling at all. The ground 

 being laid out in strips, you begin at a, and take off all 

 the top earth of a cross strip two feet wide j and you 

 wheel that earth to the end of the further strip at S. The 

 little cross strip a is marked out by straining a line 

 across the great strip, and making a chop with the spade. 

 When you have taken away the top earth of a, mark out 

 the cross strip 6, and wheel away its top earth also to the 

 same place as before, laying this top earth altogether in 

 one round snug heap, just without the limits of the 

 ground at S. You have now got the top earth away 

 from the two first trenches a and b. You next take out 

 the bottom earth of the trench a, down to the depth of 

 three feet, and you wheel that away and put it into a 

 round and snug heap, distinct from the other heap, at the 

 end of the further strip at S. You have now the trench 

 a quite empty down to three feet deep : you then move 

 the earth with a spade, or other tool, to the depth of 

 nine inches at the bottom of the trench a .-^then you take 

 the bottom earth of the trench 6, and keep putting it 

 into the trench a, until you have gone to the depth of 

 three feet ; then you dig or move the earth nine inches 

 deep again at the bottom of the trench b : then you take 

 the top earth from the trench c, and lay it upon the top 

 of the trench a. The trench b remains empty all this time, 

 and you have to toss the top earth of c across the trench 

 b in order to place it upon the top of the trench a. The 

 trench a is now finished : it has got the top earth of c 

 on its top, and all its contents have been completely 





