GEOUND OPERATIONS. 



271 



■wholly of steel, kept bright as a steel fender, either 

 \)y honest digging or careful scouring, or both. 

 The edge of such spades ■will be almost as sharp as 

 a carving-knife ; no load of soil can cling to them, 

 and the friction in use wiU be reduced to a minimum. 

 Larger ones should be wholly of steel or plated with 

 it on iron, the steel plate doing all the cutting, 

 keeping the spade clean, and preserving it in form, 

 as the steel may break, but cannot rust nor bend. 



Plotting out the Grround— The Opening. 



— ^A similar course to that recommended for trench- 

 ing is adopted, though not carried to the same 

 extent. A space should be cleared at least a foot 

 wide and a foot deep for ordinary digging. Some 

 clear more, many attempt to do the work with less, 

 but a foot is a safe and convenient average. In 

 cases where a heavy coating of manure is dug in, a 

 wider opening is desirable. One of the most impor- 

 tant points in digging is to keep this opening clear 

 and of one uniform width throughout; Otherwise 

 the work will get confused and be badly done, espe- 

 cially by amateurs. 



Importance of a Straight Line It mat- 

 ters little to experienced workmen how the land 

 lies, but very much indeed to those who are but 

 learning the art of digging. Hence the ground 

 should be set out by rod and line to start with, and 

 the next piece to be dug, whether twelve, nine, or 

 six inches, als'o marked ofE with a notch cut out 

 with the spade along the line. Then standing firmly 

 on the undug ground, if the work is to be done 

 towards the left, the spade is grasped with the right 

 hand on and through the ej'e, and the left hand just 

 under it. The left foot is then placed firmly on the 

 head of the spade, and its pressure and the thrust 

 of the hand send it down its whole length into the 

 ground ; the spade is suddenly drawn back towards 

 the digger, with the load of earth on it, and at the 

 same moment the back is bent, the left hand placed 

 lower down under the handle, the spadeful is lifted 

 up and neatly inverted, and forms the newly-dug 

 portion of the ground-line. 



One or two points need special attention during 

 the performance of the simple, yet compound, ope- 

 ration of digging. The spade should be thrust in 

 a line perpendicular to , the surface. One of the 

 surest signs of imperfect digging is a long sloping 

 side against the solid undug ground — ^the more it 

 is sloped the fleeter the digging — and in this way 

 " spit-deep," as it is called, is often not more than 

 half, or at the most three-quarters, of a spit, or 

 length of the spade. Another point of great moment 

 is the depositing of the spadefuls with neatness and 

 regularity. When the art of digging becomes per- 



fected, these spadefuls will be placed so well at first 

 as to need no touch with the spade afterwards in the 

 case of rough digging. There is no surer test of 

 skiU in digging than the measure of interference 

 with the ground on the newly-dug surface. The less 

 interference the better the digger, and vice versd. 

 The bad digger seems as if he would never leave the 

 earth alone after its inversion ; the good touches i( 

 not at all, unless it needs breaking. 



Changing Hands.— Comparatively few la- 

 bourers ever learn to change hands in digging. In ■ 

 the North, where the young gardeners do aU the 

 digging and take pride in their work, the art of dig- 

 ging has been elevated almost to the level of a 

 science ; and the lad or man who could not change 

 hands at the end of his stitch, and dig equally 

 well with his face to the ground he had dug, from 

 left to right as from right to left, was considered 

 an inferior workman. Hence, no sooner was the 

 end of the brake or stitch reached, than the spade 

 was pitched up with a flourish, the left hand placed 

 on the top instead of the right, and the digger 

 faced round and proceeded in the opposite direction. 

 In digging for health, this change of front and of 

 hands is of very great importance. It brings the 

 whole of the muscles of the body into more equal 

 exercise, giving to each side of the frame exactly the 

 same weight to lift and an equality of movement. 



Different Kinds of Digging. — These are the 

 general terms applied to digging — rough and iine. 

 The first in perfection consists of spadefuls just as 

 they are lifted and inverted. The more entire and 

 unbroken the mass, the more perfect the rough dig- 

 ging, provided however that the surface, though 

 rough, be even : that is, the upper surface of the 

 lumps or spadefuls should be all of one height ; and 

 this is not only desirable to give a workmanlike 

 appearance, but also for cultm al purposes, inasmuch 

 as ground thus roughly dug will be sufliciently 

 level for cropping, when the weather has mellowed 

 the rough clods down into a fine tilth. 



Fine digging consists in not only inverting the 

 soil as already described, but in breaking it down 

 fine at the same time. This is done by forcing if 

 over by several thi-usts, and, if need be, pats with 

 the back of the spade after inversion. Portions of it 

 may also be lifted and re-distributed, if needful, in 

 order to make the surface more level as weU as more 

 fine. This sort of digging is far less practised than 

 formerly, and is mostly confined to digging among 

 flowers or for seed-sowing. For most other purposes 

 rough digging, or a sort of hybrid between that and 

 smooth, is the most general, it being found better 

 for the soil, as well as far cheaper, to allow the 



