76 THE GARDENER. [jAN% 



cumulated on their proper places, when the impressions 

 of wheels will be but slight. You will also find em- 

 ployment now in pruning gooseberry and currant 

 trees, and trimming hedges. 



The operation of trenching too should be one of 

 your principal objects now. The method of perform- 

 ing it is this : Line off a strip about three feet wide, 

 and dl^ or pick out the earth to the required depth, 

 throwing it aside for the present ; then mark off a pa- 

 rallel strip of the same width, and if you want to re- 

 verse the relative position of the strata, and to blend 

 them, as in the case of old worn-out beds, dig off the 

 surface and lay it at the bottom of the first trench, fol- 

 lowing on, spit after spit, until you sink to the re- 

 quired depth. This is easily done if you only wish to 

 reverse the situations of the difiPerent layers, but as it 

 is more usually necessary to mix the strata together, 

 the manner of conducting the work is not exactly the 

 same; in the latter case, there is a peculiar sleight 

 which practice alone can teach, and which is not easily 

 explained on paper. A gentleman* who observed the 

 process in Flanders describes it nearly thus : The la- 

 bourer, standing in the trench, with his left hand at the 

 lower part of the handle (which is two feet long), and 

 his right at the top, by the weight of his body and 

 without the assistance of the foot — if the subsoil be 

 sufficiently loose — sinks the spade about eighteen 

 inches, and standing sideways throws off the earth with 

 a turn of the wrist, so as to lay it in an oblique posi- 

 tion in the trench, but breasting the preceding work ; 

 moving backwards and using his spade as I have stated, 

 he mixes the strata in some measure, though the layer? 

 ai'e regularly reversed. 



The advantage of loosening and working deep and 



♦ The late Rev. Thos. Radcliff, Sec. to the Farming Society 

 of Ireland, 6c c. 



