loo THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



construct them. After the paths have been taken out, and 

 before they are gravelled, a trench should be taken out in the 

 middle of each path, eight inches wide and six inches deep. The 

 trench is then filled in with good sized pieces of broken brick 

 and flints. When covered in with gravel the interstices between 

 the bricks or flints will provide a passage for water. The trenches 

 must, of course, have a slight slope, and the main trend will run 

 to a watercourse of some kind. The sketch (Fig. 47) shows a 

 section of a path thus constructed. 



Assuming that a piece of agricultural land is taken for the 

 school garden, the ground must, after having been drained (if 

 necessary), be trenched. In the case of an evening-school garden 

 this work ought to be done by the pupils. It is, however, too 

 heavy work for young boys, and must therefore, in the case of 



SURFACE Of GARDEN 



SURFACE OF PATH 



* 



FIG. 47. Section of garden path showing how it should be drained and gravelled. 



day-school gardens, be carried out beforehand by men. It is 

 not desirable, except in the case of an old-established garden 

 possessing a deep soil, to bring the subsoil to the surface. Hence, 

 where agricultural land has been taken, the following method 

 of trenching it should be adopted. The ground is marked out 

 by means of the measuring stick into rectangles a yard wide, 

 and running the whole length of the garden, as in the annexed 

 figure (Fig. 48). 



The whole of the soil in the rectangles AD and CF is taken 

 out to one spade's depth, and wheeled to the other end beyond 

 JK. Similarly, a second spade's depth of soil is taken out of 

 rectangle AD and wheeled to the other end. As this is not to 

 be brought to the surface of the soil, it must be kept separate 

 from the soil of the top spit already removed. The bottom of 

 the trench AD is then dug over, and this rectangle has thus been 

 dug to a depth of three spades. Next, the second spade's depth 



