98 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



the handle, mostly made of the best seasoned ash, 

 finishing -with a hand-piece at the top, the whole 

 being about two and a half feet in height. Blada 

 and handle may either be made straight or with 

 various curves or inclinations. A slight curve 

 wiU add to the ease and force with which the 

 spade may be used. The great secret of keeping a 

 spade in good order is frequent use, and perfect 

 cleanliness and dryness when not in use. A spade 

 should be as carefully cleaned, and sharpened if need 

 be, after use, before being hung up, as a carving- 

 knife, if it is to pi'ove efficient when wanted. Skilled 

 workmen often keep their spades as bright as their 

 master's plate, rubbing them with tallow to prevent 

 rust when they are put aside for any length of time. 

 It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of pre- 

 venting the waste of physical force by such simple 

 contrivances ; and it is no exaggeration to add that 

 a keen-edged bright spade wiU do double the work 

 with one-half the exertion a dirty, blunt, rusty one 

 requires. The merest tyro in gardening has only to try 

 the difierenoe for five minutes to determine him to 

 take, for all future time, as much care of his spade as 

 of his carvers. One more hint may be given here. 

 Those about to begin gardening should look about 

 among their labouring neighbours for a clean, well- 

 worn, second-hand spade, presenting them viith a first- 

 rate new one for it. To dig or trench with a new 

 spade is horses' work, and has cooled the enthusiasm 

 of many at the very threshold of horticultural 

 pursuits. 



Methods of Trenching. — Assuming that a 

 piece of ground twenty yards wide and thirty long 

 is to be trenched, there are two distinct ways of set- 

 ting about it. Mark a space off at one end a yard 

 wide at the narrowest — ^four feet would be better — 

 and commence to take out the trench, as it is called, a. 

 yard wide and deep, and wheel the whole of it to the 

 far end, placing the opening soU, if possible, clear 

 of the ground. This plan answers very well, but 

 it involves the removal of twenty or more cubic 

 yards or cartjoads of earth, that is, say one hundred 

 and fifty good barrow-loads, for a distance of thirty 

 yards. Until quite recently this seemed to be the 

 most orthodox mode of commencing. "With the idea 

 of limiting the labour of transporting such a con- 

 siderable mass of soil from one end to the other, 

 not a few trenchers contract their opening as much 

 as possible, leaving barely sufficient space to invert 

 the soil. This, as we shall see, is so mischievous that 

 such trenching is almost better dispensed with. 



But now a much easier method is adopted thus : 

 divide the twenty or any number of yards to be 

 trenched into two equal parts as by the line a b 

 (Fig. 8). Then tha ground on one half — sa,y from a 



to c — is trenched first, and the soil from a. instead of 

 being wheeled to c.', is thrown on the adjoining 

 ground, h. When the last trench, c, of the first half- 



Fig. 8.— Trenching. 



area is reached, the soil out of d is taken to fill it up 

 and finish from a to c, and the process continues back 

 to }, where the soil first thrown out is found ready to 

 fiU-in the last opening and finish the work. The 

 saving of labour is not the only advantage of this 

 method. Nothing injm-es soil more than the 

 wheeling of heavy weights over it when at all 

 wet; and as trenching is mostly winter work, it 

 follows that the harrowing of the soil for the opening 

 over the sinrface not seldom puddles the gi-ound, and 

 thus probably inflicts more haim than the trenching 

 does good. 



As to the trenching itself, the narrowest opening 

 practicable is a yard ; but if the trenching is to go 

 deeper than a yard, a good rule is to make the width 

 equal to the depth. Having determined the width of 

 the trench to be first opened at a (Fig. 8), measure it 

 ofi: and drive a stake at each end, stretch a line from 

 stake to stake, and cut a mark with the spade all 

 along. Next proceed to dig out all the contents of 

 the trench to the prescribed depth, removing 

 the earth to either h or o as already described. The 

 "opening," as it is called, will now be clear and 

 empty from top to bottom ; the operator will stand 

 with the open trench in front of him a yard across, 

 and the rpst of the ground to be trenched in his rear; 

 and the operation of " trenching " consists in placing 

 all the sou from a second strip of ground, e, the same 

 width as the trench, into « ; of a third, /, into e ; g into 

 /, and so on ; in doing which the whole of the soil 

 and subsoil is more or less inverted, transposed, and 

 re-mixed. 



Before proceeding further, loosen up the base of 

 the empty trench with a pick to a depth of six or 

 more inches. It is good practice to apply a heavy 

 coating of manure in the trenching of garden ground, 

 and it will be assumed throughout tha,t this whole- 

 some practice is followed. The method, however, 

 should be in all other respects the same, whether 

 manm-c is used or not. Assuming that it is, place 



