28 GARDENING FoR ALL. 
Into the bottom of this deep trench may be placed some 
manure or garden refuse, and, ifthe soil be wet, some rougher 
material may first be placed at the bottom to act as drainage. 
Then, the drainage, or manure, &c., being in, throw forward 
the second bottom spit of soil (No. 4 in the diagram), over the 
drainage, or refuse, or manure. Now adda little more manure 
on this lower soil that has been thrown forward, then, with 
the spade, take out the third top spit (No. 5), and place it 
over the manure and bottom soil that had just previously been 
moved to the front. We shall now again have a trench like 
the trench in Fig. 2, but, of course, the angles will not be so 
sharp (Fig. 3), and we proceed as before; first the drainage, 
rubbish, or manure, then the bottom soil moved forward, a 
little more manure on that, then the next spit of top soil. I 
trust that I have now made the operation of bastard-trenching 
perfectly plain to all my readers. 
Another way of bastard-digging is to remove the first spit 
of soil, then dig or fork up the bottom soil, and at once throw 
on to it the next top spit of soil. It is a very imperfect 
method, but better to stir the bottom soil in this way than not 
to disturb it at all. Ground treated as previously described 
has yielded an increase in quantity and quality of from fifty 
to one hundred per cent. of vegetable crops. 
BREAKING DOWN THE SOIL. 
In addition to ploughing or digging the soil thoroughly, 
the breaking down, or pulverising it by means of the harrow 
or fork is of very great importance. Many persons fail to 
correctly estimate the value of this work. Hundreds and 
thousands of failures have occurred, and complaints to seeds- 
men have been made, from no other cause than the imperfect 
preparation of the soil. The seed and seedsmen have been 
blamed when the cultivator alone has been in fault. The 
quality of the materials have been found fault with when the 
workman deserved censure instead. Seed has been sown on 
hard and lumpy soil instead of upon a fine and light seed-bed. 
‘Lg 
