OF PLEASURE GROUNDS. 



349 



tiously as possible, may be legitimately recommend- 

 ed. Hence, in the department of planting now un- 

 der consideration, it will be proper to trench the 

 ground, to add to the depth of soil if necessary, and 

 to enrich it by the liberal application of manure. If 

 the ground has been previously cultivated, as is ge- 

 nerally the case in the immediate vicinity of a 

 gentleman's villa or mansion, the depth of the 

 trenching should vary according to circumstances. 

 In soils consisting of good loam or clay, from 18 

 inches to 2 feet will not be too much ; in poor, 

 sandy, or gravelly soils, from 12 to 14 inches will be 

 sufficient, or rather it would be dangerous to go to a 

 greater depth. 



In good loam or clay, the subsoil itself contains 

 the principles which contribute to the growth of ve- 

 getables ; and to stir and expose it to the air, is to 

 render these principles active, and is equivalent in 

 fact to increasing the quality of nourishment con- 

 tained in the land. But, in pure sand or gravel, there 

 is absolutely nothing that can contribute to the 

 growth of a plant ; to trench ground of this descrip- 

 tion to a great depth, therefore, while it creates no 

 new fund of nourishment, is to bury the vegetable 

 mould to such a depth, that it will be long before the 

 roots of the trees be able to reach it, and except an 



