SPA 



SPA 



fences and embankments of different forts, as well as many 

 others, in the former of thefe arts. The moll handy and 

 convenient form of them, for common work, is probably 

 that in which they are made llroiig in the back, and have 

 a flight bend or curve in the handle or fhaft, as by means 

 of this the labour is performed witii greater eafe and faci- 

 lity. Various forms, fhapes, and fizes of fpades are had 

 recourfe to in prrformmg the operations of draining, mound- 

 fencing, and embanking, according to circumltances ; as 

 well as in particular works of other kinds. See Spaue, 

 Draining. 



The ipade is alfo an ufeful garden implement, which 

 is ufed for digging and preparing the foil for the receptiuu 

 of all forts of feeds and plants. Tiiere are feveral forts 

 and fizes of fpades occafionally employed in this art, though 

 the common large digging Ipade is, in moll places, almoll 

 commonly ufed for all kinds of digging and fpade-work, 

 which, however, in many inllances, cannot be fo conveniently 

 ufed as a middling or fmall (pade ; it is, therefore, eligible 

 for every garden to be furnirtied at lead with three different 

 fizes of fpades, to fuit every department of gardening the 

 more commodioufly ; fuch as the common large digging 

 fpade, for all common digging and fpade-work ; a middling 

 and a fmall fpade, for digging particular narrow compart- 

 ments, and between fmall plants clofely placed in beds and 

 borders, &c. 



The firll fort is ufually from fourteen to fifteen inches 

 long in the plate, and nine broad, narrowing gradually half 

 an inch or an inch lefa at the bottom. The fecond fort 

 fhould be about a foot long in the plate, and feven or 

 eight inches broad. Tiie fmall fpade, which is about eight 

 or nine inches long in the plate, and five wide, is convenient 

 in pointing up or flight digging, and in frelh loofening the 

 furface between clofe-placed fmall plants, in beds and borders, 

 &c. where neither of the two former fpades can be readily 

 introduced : it is alfo ufeful in planting and potting many 

 lorts of fmall plants, taking up fmall roots, and other light 

 purpofes. 



And other forts are likewifo in ufe for different purpofes, 

 as a very fmall narrow fpade, having the plate about feven 

 inches long, by three and a half or four wide, which is very 

 ufeful in fmall compartments of beds, borders, &c. contain- 

 ing fome particular clofe-placed, fmall plants of flowers, and 

 other8, both in occafionally flightly digging, or loofening 

 the earth between them with greater eafe and effeft, than a 

 larger fiz.ed fpade ; alfo fometimes in fimilar compartments, 

 in occafionally trimming round the bottom part of fome 

 ftraggling fibrous rooted plants ; and it is alio often ufeful 

 in taking up and tranfplanting fmall plants, and taking off 

 root offsets and flips, in particular forts, in which a larger 

 fpade would not be fo convenient. And farther, a femi- 

 circular or fcoopcd fpade is another fort of a finallifli 

 fize, having the plate made hollow, like a fcooped garden- 

 trowel, which is very ufeful in taking up fmall plants with 

 balls of earth, to preferve the ball more firmly about the 

 roots. 



Proper gardcn-fpades have the plates wholly of iron, not 

 above a quarter of an inch thick upward, growing gradually 

 thinner from the middle downward ; the tree, or handle, 

 being generally of a(h, about two feet long, and an inch 

 and half thick, with a firm open iiandle at top, formed out 

 of the folid wood, jult big enough to admit of taking ready 

 hold. 



Spade, Draining, that fort which is employed for the 

 purpofe of cutting out field drains. Spades for this ufe are 

 made of different breadths, fo as to follow each other, and 

 Vol. XXXIII. 



cut the drains narrow at the bottoms. There are ufually a 

 top or upper, middle, and pointed bottom fpade made ufe 

 of in this work. 



And there is a fort of fpade or fliovel, which is turned 

 up on the fides, that is ufeful in taking out the fmall pieces 

 of earth from the bottoms of the drains. Likewife a fpade 

 or tool of the fcoop kind. 



Alfo a wooden fpade, employed in foft peaty foils, where 

 the common draining-fpades cannot be ufed. See String 

 and Surface- Z)>a(n/nj. 



Spade, Paring, that fort of fpade which is made ufe of 

 in removing the tward from grafs-land. See Paring Spade, 

 and Shovel. 



Spade, Tmjing. See Tuufinc. 



Spade alfo denotes any gelded beaft, or a deer three 

 years old. 



Si'ADE-i?iV, the quantity of earth raifed by the fpade in 

 one effort. Hence probably /pit. It alfo fignifies the 

 broad iron part of the fpade. 



SpADE-5onc, a term provincially applied to the (houlder- 

 bone, probably from its being ufed formerly as a fpade. 



Spade Land, To, provincially to pare ground, or breaft- 

 plough it. 



SPADICEOUS, or Spath.\ceous Plants, in Gardening, 

 thofe the flowers of which are protruded or produced 

 from a fort of fcabbard, or fheath, which is burft open. 

 There is a great number of flower, as well as other garden- 

 plants, which are of this fort, as of the former, the narciffus 

 or daffodil and jonquil, the lily daffodil, the Guernfey lily, 

 the afphodel lily, the fea daffodil, the different varieties of 

 crocus, the meadow faftVon, the common fnow-drop, the 

 leucoium, or greater Inow-drop, and many others ; and of 

 the latter, the onion, the leek, the garlick, and fome others. 



Thefe are, for the moft part, ufeful and valuable plants 

 in either the common or flower-garden. 



SPADING, in Agriculture, a term applied, in fome 

 diftrifts, to the praftice of taking off the fward or furface 

 of grafs-land by means of the paring-fpade, in the view of 

 burning it. It is a method which is by no means unufual 

 in many diltrifts, though the paring-plough mode is by 

 far the mofl cheap and convenient. In the county of 

 Devon, when the fpading of the furface of a field or por- 

 tion of land is determined upon in this intention, it is pared 

 off, in a clean manner, to the extent of from three-fourths to 

 one inch in thicknefs ; the flices of which are then fet up 

 edgeways, and when dry, collefted into heaps, or what are 

 provincially termed beat-barrows ; and by the afliflance of 

 furze, fern, heather, hedge-row, and copfe faggots, or fome 

 other fimilar material, the whole pared fubflance fct fire to 

 and reduced to a mafs of afhes, which, when cool, are 

 fpread, either with or without being mixed with other 

 matters, fuch as lime, good mould, or the fcrapings of roads, 

 as tlje circumflances of the cafes may require, over the 

 land in an equal and exa^ manner. In this way coarfe 

 grafs-lands are fometimes brought into a ftate of cultivation, 

 and wheat, as well perhaps as fome other crops, in different 

 inllances, well prepared for and got into the ground. See 

 Paring and Burning, and Son-Burning. 



It is, however, a tedious and laborious method of culti- 

 vating and preparing land, which can probably be only 

 praftifed in particular fituations and circumflances. 



The paring-plough, which is dcfigned to be introduced 

 in the place of the tool employed in tliis fort of work, and 

 which is much fuperior in the facility, expedition, and 

 manner in which it performs it, has a wide-winged flat (hare, 

 that meafurcB about fourteen inches from the land-fidc to 

 3 1 the 



