12 
A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN. 
keeps on the whole length, by which he has 
partly tilled up the first gutter he made, and 
has made another further back. And if you 
notice properly, you will see that when the 
soil does not break into pieces and crumble by 
itself, he chops and knocks it about with his 
spade, to break it, and he also lays the top as 
true as he can as he goes along. As we have 
seen him dig several rows, we will go and see 
what the man is at with his rake yonder, and 
come back to see the fruits of this digging ; 
and as we go along, I will explain what the 
digging is for, and what effect it has, for 
this is one of the greatest contrasts that gar- 
dening forms when compared with nature in 
her uncultivated state. Ground, in a state 
of nature, is so hard that, unless it is after 
heavy rains, seeds cannot send their roots into 
it ; hence, millions of seeds that fall upon the 
earth are wasted, and those which do grow 
are very much stunted for want of nourish- 
ment. Now, the digging not only softens the 
earth and lets the air into it, which encou- 
rages the roots of plants to shoot vigorously 
into it. but it renders the soil so porous that 
the rains sink down into it and afford the 
most effective nourishment that can be given ; 
so that generally the more the soil is dug and 
stirred about, the better, and the deeper it is 
dug, the better ; for although the soil, the 
depth that a spade reaches, may be very good, 
and below that depth may be very poor and 
bad, even the stirring of that for another 
spade deep would be beneficial now and then. 
Sometimes the ground is good the full depth 
of two spades, and in such a case as this the 
bottom spadeful or spades' depth, having been 
idle a long time, and also having received all 
nourishment that has washed down with the 
rains, will be much stronger for cultivation, 
and should be put at the top, and the top spit 
at the bottom, by means of double digging or 
trenching, which, if I mistake not, we shall 
see going on to-morrow. 
We have now to observe this man who is 
drawing his rake and pushing it backwards 
and forwards on a piece of dug ground, and 
every now and then he turns the back of his 
rake next the ground to break the lumps, 
so that the surface may be quite level. I see 
he is about to sow that piece with various 
kinds of seed. You see he has marked out a 
piece about four feet wide ; that is for onions, 
not the main crop, because it is too early. 
Just notice how thinly he scatters the seed on 
that piece, what a little he seems to have 
used : the truth is, that if he could do it, he 
would sow all of the seeds four inches apart, 
because that is as near as the onions could 
grow to their full size ; but as he cannot, he 
sows them as thinly as he can, to make sure 
tlpt there are no larger vacant spaces, and will 
wait till they are up and then take away those 
that are not, wanted, so as to leave them at a 
proper distance. Now observe, he takes the 
rake again and moves it all over the surface, 
so that the teeth make little furrows, into 
which the seeds fall and get covered by the 
continuance of the operation, for as he makes 
new marks or furrows with the teeth of the 
rake, which he moves in all directions, he 
turns up the old ones, so that the seeds get 
covered with soil. Now he uses that heavy 
iron roller to press the soil down upon the 
seeds and keep in the moisture. Now, you 
observe, he has changed his implement from 
a rake to a hoe, and has taken up a garden- 
line, which is wound round a sort of iron 
swivel on a spindle, and one end of it fastened 
to a simple iron spike. He is now going to 
make what are called drills, that is, small fur- 
rows, at equal distances, in which to sow peas. 
Observe, he thrusts the spike which has one 
end of the line to it, fast into the ground, just 
two feet six inches from his onion-bed at the 
further side of the piece. As he comes across 
the ground, the line unwinds, and now giving 
it two or three turns round the spindle, so 
that it should not loosen, he stretches the line 
as tight as possible, and thrusts the spindle 
into the ground the same distance from his 
onion-bed at this end. You must now take 
notice that the line is so tight along the sur- 
face of the ground, that if it be pulled or 
pushed on one side, it springs back into its 
place again : for instance, he is drawing the 
hoe all along one side of it to make a sort of 
gutter or furrow with the corner of it, and 
although he presses the cord on one side every 
now and then, it recovers its place again di- 
rectly. Now this furrow, which is about two 
inches deep from the surface, has a sort of 
bank by .the side of it, formed of the soil 
that has been drawn out of it. Observe, too, 
that he moves the line forward exactly two 
feet six inches at each end, to make another 
such furrow, and he will continue to do so all 
through the rest of that piece of ground that 
he has raked after digging ; he will then 
sprinkle peas along the bottom of the furrows, 
an inch apart, and with the back of his rake 
he will draw down a part of the little bank, 
so as to bury the seed an inch deep, and press 
it on the seed a little. Both peas and onions 
will then be left until they are fairly above 
ground. Let us now turn back to the dig- 
ging, for by this time the man must be get- 
ting pretty well through his job. You see he 
has now come to the end of the piece, and 
there is a vacant trench all across his work. 
Now observe, he is filling up the last trench 
or furrow with the earth he dug out of the 
first, and wheeled in the barrow to this end, 
so that the whole piece is level ; and the soil 
