SECTION yi. 



427 



degrees, in such a way, as that in throwing on the contents, the surface 

 mould may crumble down, and in some sort mix with the entire mass 

 excavated. When I thought of this method twenty years ago, the 

 workmen objected to the execution of three spits deep, at the ssime price 

 per fall (^Anglice, pole) as has been paid for two spits. But on per- 

 suading them to try, they discovered that, instead of being more, it was 

 less laborious than the two spits with the two shovellings ; and thus, 

 after a little practice, I was enabled to add another inch, and sometimes 

 two, to the depth of the work, for the same expense, and likewise to 

 obtain a far greater comminution of the parts. Since that time we 

 never trench according to any other method here ; and the benefit 

 resulting from it has induced others to adopt the practice. In the 

 " Encyclopedia of Gardening," (§ 236,) there is an excellent style of 

 trenching described for mixing soils, but on too extensive a scale for 

 any thing but horticultural purposes of the most expensive sort. 



The trenching or deepening of ground is a practice of first-rate 

 importance in Arboriculture, whether to trees during infancy in the 

 nursery-ground, or after they have attained a more advanced age. In 

 the present section, the benefit attending it has been so particularly 

 insisted on, that no more could be necessary to be said upon the sub- 

 ject in this place, had not the public attention been particularly 

 turned to it by a late writer, Mr William Withers, junior, of Holt, 

 Norfolk. 



This gentleman has lately published two pamphlets on the practice 

 in question, the object of which is to show, that by trenching the 

 ground previously to planting, and then keeping it clean for some 

 years afterwards, greater progress will be made by wood of every 

 sort, and consequently a greater return to the planter in ten or twelve 

 years, than in five-and-twenty and thirty by the common method. 

 The system is not new, having been well known in England for more 

 than two centuries : yet the author, in the first pamphlet, makes out his 

 statements in a manner so clear and satisfactory as to excite consider- 

 able interest ; and as ingenious experiment is his forte, and not scien- 

 tific inquiry, he corroborates the whole by an animated and confident 

 appeal to his own practice. By all impartial persons who are 

 acquainted with the subject, the account given by Mr Withers of his 

 operations will be admitted to be extremely candid ; and I agree with 

 Mr Cobbett (See Reg. Nov. 1825,) that it is " neat, plain, unassuming, 

 and full of interest." 



