General Instructions, 



may be disposed of as mentioned in paragraph 14. You 

 have now got the trench a clean out to the depth of two 

 feet. Then you take a sj)it off the top of trench h, and, 

 put it, upside down, at the bottom of trench a. Then 

 go on to dig out all the rest of the earth in trench b, 

 and lay it in trench a, keep the sides and the ends of 

 your trench perpendicular, and go down till you have 

 the trench clean two feet deep in every part of it, lay- 

 ing in trench a all that comes out of b; and you will 

 find that the earth of trench a is now six or seven inches 

 higher than the common surface of the untrenched land. 

 You now proceed to trench c, and repeat the operation : 

 and thus you go on, all along the lift, to the end D. But, 

 before I speak of what you are to do there, I must observe, 

 that the top spits of b, when flung into the bottom of o, 

 ought not to be broken, but to be turned in whole ; for the 

 more hollow the ground lie the better; and these spits, 

 especially if they be made solid by the roots of grass, will 

 have cavities amongst them at the bottom of the trench, 

 which are a great benefit. It is not necessary, nor is it 

 useful, to make the trenched ground smooth at top. It 

 should be level; that is to say, not in heaps and holes; 

 but, there is no good, but harm, in breaking it fine and 

 making it smooth, especially if the weather be wet when 

 the work is going on. If you have a mind to do the 

 work veiy well, you will, when you have got trench a 

 empty to two feet deep, dig it at the bottom of it a spit deep. 

 That is to say, turn the bottom upside down a clean spit 

 deep, which, if the spade be of the right length, and if the 

 digger have some bacon and beer in him, will move the 

 ground another foot down, and this will raise the new- 

 ground another two inches. 



19. When you come to the end D, you will have a trench 



