chap, i.] STIRRING THE SOIL. 
7 
The uses of digging having been thus 
explained, it is now necessary to say some¬ 
thing of its practice, and particularly of its 
applicability to ladies. It must be confessed 
that digging appears, at first sight, a very 
laborious employment, and one peculiarly 
unfitted to small and delicately formed hands 
and feet; but, by a little attention to the 
principles of mechanics and the laws of mo¬ 
tion, the labour may be much simplified and 
rendered comparatively easy. The opera¬ 
tion of digging, as performed by a gardener, 
consists in thrusting the iron part of the 
spade, which acts as a wedge, perpendicu¬ 
larly into the ground by the application of 
the foot, and then using the long handle as a 
lever, to raise up the loosened earth and turn 
it over. The quantity of earth thus raised 
is called a spitful, and the gardener, when 
he has turned it, chops it to break the 
clods, with the sharp edge of his spade, and 
levels it with the back. During the whole 
operation, the gardener holds the cross part 
of the handle of the spade in his right-hand, 
while he grasps the smooth round lower part 
of the handle in his left, to assist him in raising 
