GARDENING FOR ALL. 27 
TRENCHING, OR BASTARD-TRENCHING. 
By ordinary double-digging, or trenching, we bury the 
best soil and bring the worst soil—the sub-soil—to the top. 
Many cultivators who have brought the sub-soil to the top 
have been sorry for doing it. Twenty years ago I had a 
small piece of ground so done, and—I was sorry for it. 
Nothing prospered on that soil for several years, and it was 
not likely! Soil inert, deficient of plant food, was brought 
up and the good soil buried. Plants languished upon it, 
seeds and seedlings perished, decent crops were looked for in 
vain! Therefore I do not recommend trenching as the 
operation is usually performed and understood, but I prefer 
bastard-trenching. Bastard-trenching is a system of double- 
digging whereby the soil derives all the benefits of ordinary 
trenching and none of its disadvantages ; the good and richer 
top soil being kept in its original position and the poor lower 
soil similarly. 
In commencing to bastard-trench a piece of ground, let 
the first and second top spits of soil be first removed (numbered 
1 and 2 in the diagram), then remove the first bottom spit, 
numbered 3, Fig. 1, and we shall have an open trench as 
shown in Fig. 2. 
if277 
Vij 
FIG. I L 
FIG. 2 i 
