FAMILIAR LESSONS ON PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
403 
oration, is, to produce a staple earth as nearly 
as may be, intermediate between sand and 
clay ; and of this earth a depth of from two 
to three feet should be provided. This may 
be effected gradually, by adding new soil of 
the proper corrective kind, and by trenching 
and bringing up annually a portion of the 
subsoil to be exposed to the atmosphere, 
where there are not facilities for doing so 
speedily, either by at once breaking up the 
staple to a sufficient depth, or adding a large 
bulk of good soil. 
TRENCHING AND DIGGINa. 
These operations are the most laborious 
of the continually-recurring operations con- 
nected with garden cultivation. They are, 
however, very essential. The proper per- 
formance of them has the effect of lightening 
up the body of soil operated on, of pulverizing 
it, of intermixing its particles together, and 
facilitating the intermixture of composts, ma- 
nures, &c., of exposing fresh surfaces to the 
action of solar heat, and of atmospheric influ- 
ences, of favouring the percolation from above 
downwards of rain, which would otherwise 
pass away less freely, and saturate the soil, 
and of favouring the action of capillary attrac- 
tion, by which moisture is sucked up, so to 
speak, from below, to supply the plants during 
periods of drought. The neglect of them, on 
the other hand, is conducive to consolidation 
in the mass of soil, by wliich means it binds 
together, and can be broken up only in large 
lumps; manures and composts do not get dis- 
tributed equally throughout the bulk, heat 
does not penetrate deeply, nor the air play 
among the particles of earth ; it becomes 
water-logged and saturated if much rain falls 
upon it ; and in dry weather, when rain does 
not fall in sufficient quantities to nourish the 
plants, it is not in a condition to attract or 
suck up moisture from below. 
Thus, a well-wrought soil is es- 
sential to success in the tillage of 
the ground. 
The various operations of this 
class, as trenching, digging, fork- 
ing, &c., are essentially the same 
in their object, and differ only in 
degree, and in the manner of 
execution. 
Digging is the most common. 
The instrument chiefly used is 
the spade, though sometimes the 
digging-fork may be employed. 
To commence : Dig out at one 
end an opening across the piece 
of ground to be dug, say of one 
foot deep by one foot wide ; this 
opening is called the trench, and 
a mass of soil about a foot square, 
2 
a 
c 
such tis is lifted by one act of insertion, is 
called a spadeful or spit of earth ; the trench, 
therefore, is to be a good spit deep and wide, 
to give room to turn over the successional 
spits in the process of digging. The earth so 
taken out is wheeled to the other end, to fill 
up the trench when the ground has been all 
dug. If the piece of ground is large, this is 
laborious and tedious ; it is, thei-efore, cus- 
tomary and proper to divide the ground by 
an imaginary line (sometimes indicated by 
chopping a crevice with the spade, or by 
drawing a drill with the hoe) into two equal 
parts, thus. The 
earth taken out of 
the trench a, is de- 
posited at h, close at 
hand ; when the 
piece. No. 1, is dug 
throughout to c, an 
open trench is left ; 
this is filled up in 
making an opening at d, and finally, the soil 
deposited at h fills up the opening when 
No. 2 is all dug. The same arrangement of 
work is followed, when necessary, in trench- 
ing. When the trench a is opened, the ope- 
ration proceeds by thrusting into the ground, 
in a perpendicular direction, the blade of the 
spade, at six, eight, or ten inches backwards 
from the trench and towards c ; the top of 
the spade-handle is then pulled slightly back- 
wards, by which leverage the mass of earth 
before the blade is detached, and at the same 
moment the operator stoops, one hand holding 
the top of the handle, the other slipped about 
half-way down or rather more, and in this 
way the spadeful of earth is lifted, and thrown 
to the opposite side of the trench, the spade 
being turned sideways ; in this process of 
lifting and turning the earth becomes re- 
versed, so that, when deposited on the oppo- 
site side of the trench, it is upside down 
compared with its former position, the bottom 
being brought to the top, and the top placed 
at bottom. A fresh surface is thus obtained, 
and any weeds on the former surface become 
buried, as does also any dressing of manure 
which may have been spread over the surface 
before digging commenced. This continues 
regularly across the portion at the end of 
which the trench was opened, and back again, 
and so on till completed. It is desirable that 
the operation proceed evenly and regularly 
across the ground, so that the trench may be 
alwaj^s of equal length ; for if one side is 
worked forwarder than the other, so that the 
trench becomes diagonal in reference to the 
ground, it will be lengthened, and in the same 
proportion narrowed, and if this narrowing 
becomes considerable, the entire operation is 
less perfectly performed. 
■D-D 2 
