CULTIVATION. 89 



3. By horse labour alone. 



4. By steam power (steam cultivation). 



Trenching by hand is the best and most effectual method, 

 though the most expensive. Under the most favourable con- 

 ditions a man can only trench an area of 30 to 60 square 

 yards to a depth of 20 to 24 inches per eight-hour day, so 

 that the cost of digging an acre of ground at a daily wage 

 of 2s. amounts to 160s. to 320s. In many places, especially 

 on very steep" ground, hand labour is indispensable, and it is 

 also suitable where the area to be dealt with is small. 



When hand trenching is practised the first step is to dig 

 a pit about 40 inches wide and 20 to 24 inches deep across 

 the one end of the field. Into this trench is shovelled the 

 earth from the next strip, a second trench being thus formed, 

 which is filled with soil from the third strip, and so on until 

 the whole field has been treated alike. The last trench of all 

 is then filled with the soil taken out of the first trench and 

 wheeled to the further end for that purpose. 



Where the field is very wide it is best divided into plots 

 about 10 yards wide, each, of which is trenched in the manner 

 already described. To reduce the labour of carting the soil 

 from the first trench to the other end of the field the work 

 of trenching is begun at opposite ends in adjoining plots (see 

 Pig. 18). Thus, if plot 1 be commenced at the top end, the 

 final trench at the bottom can be filled with the soil taken 

 out in digging the first trench of plot 2. If the ground is 

 parcelled into an even number of plots there will be no need 

 to transport any soil at all from one end of the field to the 

 other, arid where there is an odd number of plots only the 

 contents of the one trench in the final plot will have to be 

 so transported. 



The principal advantages of hand trenching are that, in 

 the first place, it enables the surface to be levelled where 

 this object is desired ; furthermore, that weeds, and especially 



