February • 61 
loosens it all gently, and lifts it at last quite care- 
fully. 
. If the plant is a large one, he trenches out soil 
all round it, at some distance off, and then works 
carefully at loosening the soil under it by slipping 
his spade downwards. You must think how it is. 
If you cut a square piece of moist earth all round 
it will lift up in one piece, but if you merely try 
to take up a spadeful it tumbles all to pieces just 
as it does in digging. 
The next thing is to put on new soil, if wanted ; 
but this is not likely to happen when you give 
such a deep digging more than every other year 
or so ; indeed, if you begin by putting all new soil 
it will last several years with only the help of a 
little leaf-soil sometimes, such, for instance, as 
dead leaves well dug in, by spreading them over 
the top before you begin to dig, and so burying 
them all along as you go. When a little new soil 
just for the top is required, and sometimes beds 
get low and want something to raise them up a 
little in the middle, you can have recourse to the 
heaps you prepared last month. That soil being 
wheeled down has only to be spread carefully on 
the beds, the roots of course first being taken out, 
just as if you were digging. 
