254 THE BEGINNER'S GARDEN BOOK 



of the trench, where lumps are easily seen. Anything that 

 will decay can be buried in the bottom of the trench. If one 

 is spading in manure, or is turning sod, the open trench shows 

 exactly how the work is being done. The manure can be 

 left at just the right depth, leaving the fine earth above for a 

 seed bed. Or the sod is dropped in the bottom of the trench, 

 face down, making it very hard for the roots to strike. I have 

 in this way dug under a crop of rape standing eighteen inches 

 tall, laying it deep in the trench, so that by the time the 

 roots of the next crop reached it, it was already rotting. 



Again, spading with the trench open allows us to get at the 

 subsoil. If this is very hard by nature, or has been closely 

 packed, it will be a good plan to loosen it. Make the trench 

 as wide as you conveniently can, and as often as it is finished 

 anew, thrust down the spade through the bottom and into 

 the subsoil. You will often have to use the spade corner- 

 wise, and even to have your cuts criss-cross each other, in 

 order properly to break up the subsoil. Each time the 

 spade is thrust well down, pry the slice loose, and then leave 

 it; or you may even lift it, turn it, and drop it back. The 

 latter is hard to do without mixing with the loam some of the 

 gritty subsoil. 



There is one more advantage to the trench, which is dis- 

 covered as soon as the worker tries to spade a piece of land 

 that is full of witch-grass, sorrel, or other perennial roots 

 that will need but a week to sprout again. There is only one 

 way to do such a job properly, and that is to get out every 

 root. If the soil is merely dropped in the place from which 

 it was lifted, many of the roots are covered and not seen. 

 If they are strewn on the face of the trench, they are de- 

 tected at once. 



Here shows the superiority of the fork over the spade in 

 digging sod-land. With a close sod, the fork more easily tears 



