December 11, 1S84. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
521 
the rainfall. It has certainly been exceptionally dry in this 
locality. As a proof, I will mention that wishing to lift some 
rather large trees, and to trench deeply a small portion of border 
ground in my garden at the end of last month, I was surprised 
to find, after the first spit was dug, the ground below was as hard 
as a rock. No spade could turn it, and we were obliged to use 
the pickaxe to loosen the soil. I am glad to say the rain we have 
just had has now rendered our garden work easy. 
The satisfaction I have experienced in taking these meteoro¬ 
logical observations and gathering information on the rainfall of 
other districts, induces me to believe many others would pleasurably 
occupy their leisure time in obtaining information on the same 
subject, and younger men than myself be led to carry out many 
other and higher branches of the science of meteorology, in an 
age of such rapid progress as the present we may hope for many 
valuable and important discoveries in this science. Although 
the voltaic pile already reveals the wondrous connection of elec¬ 
trical, magnetical, and chemical phenomena, the circle of brilliant 
discoveries has yet to be pierced, for who shall say we know the 
whole number of the forces which pervade the universe ? 
I may perhaps appropiaately remark how largely indebted I 
am to a kind and excellent friend, Mr. Mawley, for the interest 
he has taken in looking over and correcting some of my meteoro¬ 
logical readings, and the judicious advice he gave me when I first 
made arrangements for these daily records and registering the 
rainfall in every month throughout the year. Under his personal 
superintendence I had one of Stevenson’s screens placed on grass 
in an open part of my garden facing north, inside which I’est a 
maximum and minimum thermometer. I have also a minimum 
thermometer, forked bulb, for the grass, which rests on two brass 
supports just immediately above the grass, though not in positive 
contact with it, and another exposed thermometer on two wooden 
standards at 2 feet above the ground. My rain-gauge is a 5-inch 
copper Snowden one, having a rim 5 inches deep, and provided 
with a copper overflow bucket capable of holding over 'J inches 
of rain, with a glass bottle receiver. All these instruments were 
duly verified and certified for correctness before I received them 
from the makers. I take readings once daily at D a.m. punctually, 
and keep these records strictly and regularly posted up in a book 
arranged for this purpose. It is a most interesting work, and 
has alforded me the highest pleasure as well as useful infor¬ 
mation. Mr. Haywood of Woodhatch, and the Rev. Alan 
Cheales, who resides a few miles from Reigate, also engage in 
this study, and we impart the result of our several readings and 
compare our monthly records with the greatest satisfaction and 
mutual benefit. I also send a monthly counterpart of myregisUy 
to Mr. Mawley, and often get the advantage of many valuable 
remarks from him. I have entered into these details to show 
how with really very simple appliances our vacant moments may 
be usefully occupied. Mr. Mawley is well known as a great 
authority on matters relating to this department of science, his 
writings are much appreciated for their accuracy and clearness 
of expression, and I am sure we shall read with deep interest a 
paper by him which will appear in the forthcoming edition of the 
“Rosarian’s Year-Book.” for 1885. 
I cannot conclude without expressing regret that a better 
position was not given to the meteorological section at the 
Health Exhibition, so that the public might have had a better 
opportunity of examining the various highly scientific instruments 
that were exhibited, and understanding the important purposes 
for which they were used.—G. B. 
IS TRENCHING ALWAYS JUDICIOUS ? 
When writing on the subject of mulching and top-dressing 
I stated that I was arriving at the conclusion that too much 
importance is attached to deep culture for vegetables as well as 
fruit trees, and I now propose to give my reasons for thinking so. 
Much that I shall advance will probably be at variance with the 
opinions and practices of more scientific and more experienced 
men, and if I am not actually told, when advocating good surface 
rather than deep culture, I am getting out of my depth, I may 
yet receive a sharp rap on the knuckles for my pains. This 1 
will receive, if not thankfully, at any rate with the best of good 
will, and doubtless the act of proving me wrong will set many 
readers right. 
It has become a pretty general practice to recommend that 
ground be double-dug or trenched for various crops; in fact, the 
instructions frequently convey the idea that this deep digging 
is absolutely necessary if success is to be achieved. In some 
cases, no doubt the advice is sound enough, but more often not; 
it is both misleading and, to say the_ least, quite uncalled for. 
Whether trenching in any form will be beneficial depends 
entirely upon the depth of the surface soil, the nature of the 
subsoil, and the way in which it is performed. Supposing we 
have a depth, say, of 12 inches or more of alluvial or other fertile 
soil with a subsoil that needs to be broken up the better to 
amalgamate with the surface soil and thereby serve to maintain 
its moisture during dry weather, then perhaps bastard trenching, 
by which process a small portion of fresh soil is mixed with the 
over-manured or perhaps exhausted top soil, will serve to correct 
and improve it. Or, again, if the surface soil is vei’y shallow 
resting on a hard unbroken subsoil, the breaking-up of the 
latter the mixing with it various decaying and fertilising 
materials will gradually and surely improve the fertility of the 
garden. I also admit that where manure is scarce there are 
gardens that will be improved and rendered more fertile by 
bastard trenching. 
Many, however, do more harm than good by trenching, and 
I assert that the whole business has been overdone. i may, 
perhaps, be told that by deep digging we facilitate the drainage 
of the land, that we bury many weeds, thereby rendering these 
into manure instead of being plagued by them the following 
season; that by loosening the soil to a greater depth we facilitate 
the percolation of the water as it falls ; and that as the air 
follows the water, it in its turn effects the disintegration of the 
subsoil, thereby liberating various mineral foods, &c. All this 
may be perfectly true in some cases, but I I’epeat not in the 
majority, nor has it proved so in any gardens that has come 
under my constant notice. According to my experience, whether 
the ground is well drained or not depends entirely upon the 
number and disposition of the pipe drains, and newly trenched 
ground is the most absorbent and the worse drained; while land 
that has not been dug, say for twelve months, naturally drains 
the best, and is, therefore, the warmest. I am alluding more 
especially to soil in which clay more or less abounds, and which, 
under good treatment, is perhaps the most fertile of all. 
Ordinary digging, if properly done, should bury weeds beyond 
all fear of their being brought to the surface before decomposed, 
while the seeds of many seem the most tenacious of life when 
buried to a great depth. What amount of manurial property 
is there in weeds, or, indeed, in the strawy rubbish that, in too 
many places, has to do duty for mamri’e P With regard to the 
aeration of the subsoil, or the second spit of ground, and the 
disintegration f o'lowing, I had better, perhaps, say nothing, or 
some of my thinking friends will take me to task. It reads very 
well, but it is a slow process, and I, for one, cannot afford to 
wait for it, especially seeing we have neither time for trenching 
and no wish to encourage deep root-action. 
It is near the surface where the fibres are formed, and, 
whether rightly or wrongly, I am inclined to attach but little 
value to roots without fibres. We are told that certain plants 
will root to a particular depth, but is this deep root-action to 
their advantage, even supposing food is p'aced for them to that 
same depth ? All will agree that it is possible for fruit trees to 
root too deeply, and I am ivithin the mark when I assert that 
it is deep root-action that is the ruin of 90 per cent, of the fruit 
trees planted. If it is to the advantage of fruit trees to be 
rooting near the surface, why not apply the same rale to vegeta¬ 
tion general'y ? Taking this for granted, is it not, to say the 
least, a very wasteful practice to dispose a quantity of manure 
in the bottom of a deep trench when this serves to allure the 
roots to a greater depth than is good for them? It may be said 
that the second spit is manured partly to afford food for the 
plants, and pai’tly to gradually fit it for bringing to the surface 
in the place of that which is exhausted of much that the gardener 
cannot restore to it. A very good object doubtless, but why 
put the manure so deep P Would it not be better to dispose it 
between the two spits, where it would be better assimilated by 
the p ants ? 
•Trenching, or the complete reversion of the two spits, most 
frequently results in bringing much very poor soil to the surface; 
and even in bastard trenching, or the breaking up of the ground 
two spits deep without changing their positions, still greatly 
alters, as intended, the character of the surface soil, the shovel¬ 
lings effecting this. In either case, if we make the surface poor 
and unworkable, the chances are the crops, for one season at 
least, wi 1 never become sufficiently strong to benefit by the con¬ 
venient deep root run. This may seem a weak argument, but it is 
not, as, strange to say, it is this very occurrence that has upset the 
calculations of many who have trenched their garden under the 
impression that wonderful crops would follow. Very few subsoils 
or second spits, as the case may be, are, when brought to the 
surface, sufficiently fertile to suit the crops planted in them, 
and in some cases it takes years to bring them into a good 
working condition. If we must trench the ground—and I again 
admit it may be wise to do so in some instances—we must also 
take particular notice that we also either well mix or manure 
