SITUATION, SOIL, 



[chap. 



depth of earth on the top of it, it is, taking all things together, 

 the pasturage, the sound roads, the easy cultivation in all weathers, 

 the healthiness which it invariably gives to cattle of all sorts, the 

 very best land in the world for a farm ; and I, who have per- 

 haps seen as many farms and home-steds as any man in England, 

 and in as many different situations, never saw such fine, such 

 beautiful, such generally productive, such neat and really rich 

 farms, as in countries consisting entirely of chalk, excepting the 

 mere bottoms of the valleys along which run the brooks and 

 the rivers, and here, too, are the finest of all the watered meadows 

 that I ever saw. 



21. I am by no means, therefore, afraid of chalk, especially as 

 houses are seldom built, and kitchen-gardens seldom wanted on 

 chalk hills. In chalky countries, kitchen-gardens are generally 

 wanted on the sides of such hills where there is generally consi- 

 derable depth of soil above the chalk ; in which case there can 

 seldom be better soil for a kitchen-garden, if the proper prepa- 

 rations be made ; and of those preparations I am now about 

 to speak. 



22. Having fixed upon the spot for the garden, the next thing 

 is to prepare the ground. I shall suppose it to be part of a field, 

 or of a coppice : in the former case, there must be ploughing and 

 harrowing to destroy the roots of all weeds most effectually : in 

 the latter, complete grubbing, so as to leave no roots of timber- 

 trees or underwood in the ground ; and then must come an 

 operation absolutely indispensable to the making of a good garden ; 

 that is to say, trenching to the depth of two feet at the least ; and, 

 as asparagus, and some other things, send their roots down to 

 a much greater depth than two feet, the whole ought to be trenched 

 to the depth of three feet, with a spit of digging at the bottom 

 of each trench, which would move the ground to the depth of 

 three feet nine inches, or thereabouts. 



23. According to the common manner of trenching, the top-soil 

 would be turned dowii to the bottom of the trench, and the bottom- 

 soil brought up to the top ; so that you have it at the top, if the 

 land be chalky, a bed of sheer chalk ; if clayey, a bed of clay, 

 and so on ; and, in the very best of land, you bring up to the top 

 matter which has never seen the sun, and which, in spite of every- 

 thing that you can do in the way of tillage as well as in the way 

 of manure, will requise many years before it will become gmund 



