98 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



the handle, mostly made of the best seasoned ash, 

 finishing with a hand-piece at the top, the whole 

 being about two and a half feet in height. Blade 

 and handle may either be made straight or with 

 various curves or inclinations. A slight cm-ve 

 will add to the ease and force with which the 

 spade may be used. The great secret of keeping a 

 gpade in good order is frequent use, and perfect 

 cleanliness and di-yness when not in use. A spade 

 should be as carefully cleaned, and sharpened if need 

 be, after use, before being hung up, as a carving- 

 knife, if it is to prove efficient when wanted. Skilled 

 workmen often keep their spades as bright as theii" 

 master's plate, rubbing them with tallow to prevent 

 rust when they are put aside for any length of time. 

 It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of pre- 

 venting the waste of physical force by such simple 

 contrivances ; and it is no exaggeration to add that 

 a keen-edged bright spade will do double the work 

 with one-half the exertion a dirty, blimt, rusty one 

 requires. The merest tyro in gardening has only to try 

 the difference for five minutes to determine him to 

 take, for all future time, as much care of his spade as 

 of his carvers. One more hint maybe given here. 

 Those about to begin gardening should look about 

 among their laboui'ing neighbours for a clean, well- 

 worn, second-hand spade, presenting them with a fii'st- 

 rate new one for it. To dig or trench -^ith a new 

 spade is horses' w^ork, and has cooled the enthusiasm 

 of many at the \qvj thi-eshold of horticultm'al 

 pui'suits. 



Methods of Trencliing. — Assuming that a 

 piece of ground twenty yards wide and thirty long 

 is to be trenched, there are two distinct ways of set- 

 ting about it. ]\Iark a space off at one end a yard 

 wide at the narrowest — foiu- feet would be better — ■ 

 and commence to take out the trench, as it is called, a 

 yard wide and deep, and wheel the whole of it to the 

 far end, placing the opening soil, if possible, clear 

 of the ground. This ]3lan answers very well, but 

 it involves the removal of twenty or more cubic 

 yards or cart-loads of earth, that is, say one hundred 

 and fifty good barrow-loads, for a distance of thirty 

 yards. Until quite recently this seemed to be the 

 most orthodox mode of commencing. With the idea 

 of limiting the labour of transporting such a con- 

 siderable mass of soil from one end to the other, 

 not a few trenchers contract their opening as much 

 as possible, leaving barely sufficient space to invert 

 the soil. This, as we shall see, is so mischievous that 

 such trenching is almost better dispensed with. 



But now a much easier method is adopted thus : 

 divide the twenty or any number of yards to be 

 trenched into two equal parts as by the line ab 

 (Fig. 8). Then the ground on one half — say from a 



to c — is trenched first, and the soil from a, instead of 

 being wheeled to c, is thi-own on the adjoining 

 ground, h. When the last trench, c, of the first haif- 



^ \ f \ 9 



Fig. 8.— Trencliiug, 



area is reached, the soil out of d is taken to fill it up 

 and finish from a to c, and the process continues back 

 to Zi, where the soil first thrown out is found ready to 

 fill-in the last opening and finish the work. Tlio 

 saving of laboui' is not the only advantage of this 

 method. Nothing injm-es soil more than the 

 wheeling of heavy weights over it when at all 

 wet ; and as trenching is mostly winter work, it 

 follows that the harrowing of tlie soil for the opening 

 over the smiace not seldom puddles the ground, and 

 thus probably inflicts more hann than the trenching- 

 does good. 



As to the trenching itself, the narrowest opening 

 jDracticable is a yard ; but if the trenching is to go 

 deeper than a yard, a good rule is to make the width 

 equal to the depth. Having determined the width of 

 the trench to be first opened at a (Fig. 8), measure it 

 oft and drive a stake at each end, stretch a line fi'om 

 stake to stake, and cut a mark with the spade all 

 along. Next proceed to dig out all the contents of 

 the trench to the prescribed depth, removing 

 the earth to either h or c as already described. The 

 " opening," as it is called, will now be clear and 

 empty from top to bottom ;- the operator will stand 

 with the ox^en trench in front of Mm a yard across, 

 and the rest of the ground to be trenched in his rear; 

 and the operation of " trenching " consists in placing 

 all the soil from a second strip of ground, e, the same 

 width as the trench, into : of a third, /, into e ; g into 

 /, and so on ; in doing which the whole of the soil 

 and subsoil is more or less inverted, transj)^^^*^' 

 re-mixed. 



Before proceeding fm-ther, loosen up the base of 

 the empty trench with a pick to a depth of six or 

 more inches. It is good practice to apply a heavy 

 coating of maniu-e in the trenching of garden ground, 

 and it will be assumed throughout that this whole- 

 some practice is followed. The method, however, 

 should be in all other respects the same, whether 

 mantu-c is used or not. Assuming that it is, place 



