302 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
at hand. It may often be impossible to find anything suitable 
under 5s. or 6s. a load. At these rates the cost would be from 
Gd. to Is. per square yard. Where clay is abundant, and 
especially in districts where coal is cheap, ballast burnt on the 
ground is the cheapest road material. It will cost, including the 
fuel (slack coal), digging the clay, and burning, from Is. to 2s. Gd. 
per cubic yard of burnt ballast, or Sd. to 6d. per square yard of 
road ; the labour of spreading the material being additional. 
Preparation of the Land. — The cheapest method of pre- 
paring land for fruit planting is ploughing, but, except in the case 
of w^ell-cultivated and properly drained land having a porous 
subsoil, this is not the most satisfactory. Ordinary ploughing, 
Avhere others have to be employed to do the work, will cost from 
10s. to 15s. an acre. Where the land is ploughed it must also 
be harrowed before planting, preferably in two different direc- 
tions, which will cost 3s. or 4s. an acre. 
For ground previously well cultivated digging one spit deep 
may suffice, and if manure is to be applied at the same time 
either this or trenching is a necessity. In moderately free soil 
digging costs from dd. to Ad. a square rod, or £2 to £2. 14s. an 
acre, but on the heavier soils better suited for fruit it will 
average Gc?. per rod or £4 an acre. Forking may be reckoned 
at the same cost, always remembering that if the land be foul 
with twitch or other root-spreading weeds it will be nearly 
double. 
In preparing old pasture land for fruit trees, the turf is best 
removed if it is infested with wireworm and other pests. Near 
towns it can be sometimes sold if cut early in the year, and will 
bring 3s. to 4s. per 100 turves 3 feet long by 1 foot wide. If cut 
by the purchaser the price is usually 2s. Gd. per 100. Otherwise 
it is better burnt on the land, and will cost about 12s. to 15s. an 
acre. With younger pasture in a clean state, the turf may be 
l)rokc'n up and turned in as the digging or trenching proceeds, 
but the work will cost 2s. to 3s. a rod. 
Trenching. — The cost of trenching, or double digging, i.e. 
digging two spits deep — the most thorough mode of preparing 
land for fruit trees — varies according to tlio method pursued a,nd 
the character of the soil. The plan usually adopted with land 
of which the subsoil is either very heavy, or for some other 
reason unsuitaljle to bo brought to the surface, is to remove the 
