AMEKxCAN AGRICULTURIST. 
85 
and dig a trench two feet deep, and of the 
same width; or if the heating material is 
easily obtained, three feet in width is still 
better. This may be of any desired length. 
Fill with good heating manure, the same as 
for hot-beds, raising it about one foot above 
the surrounding surface. Next add eight or 
ten inches of good rich mold for the plants 
to grow in. As soon as this covering is 
warmed by the material beneath, cabbages, 
cauliflowers, egg-plants, cucumbers, melons, 
&c., may be transplanted from the liot-bed, 
placing them the requisite distance apart for 
their future growth, and cover with hand¬ 
glasses provided for this purpose, shading 
them for a day or two. When the plants 
have commenced their growth, raise the 
glasses to admit the air, propping them up, 
and lowering again at night. As warm 
weather advances, they may be taken off 
during fine days to harden the plants, and 
about the latter end of May removed en¬ 
tirely. 
Wooden boxes with a pane of glass for 
the upper surface will answer instead of 
regular hand-glasses, though not as good, 
as they do not admit light and warmth in all 
sides. 
A ridge of the above kind may also be 
used to sow vegetables upon. 
CAULIFLOWERS. 
A good cauliflower is almost as rare a 
thing in the country, as a good pear. They 
are not to be found in one farmer’s garden 
in a hundred ; and yet with good seed, and 
land, they are almost as sure to head as a 
cabbage. The cauliflower is the most deli¬ 
cate and delicious of all the varieties of the 
Brassica oleracea, which in its native state is 
a small, open-leaved, cruciferous, yellow- 
flowered plant, found growing wild, near the 
cliff's, upon the sea shore of Britain. 
It cannot be grown to perfection in the 
shade of trees, buildings, or fences. It 
wants the open ground, and plenty of sun¬ 
light, though it is more impatient of drought 
than most other vegetables. It delights in a 
rich, deep, well worked soil, through which 
the roots can penetrate easily in all direc¬ 
tions. Besides the usual thorough manuring 
of the vegetable garden, it wants a liquid 
manure, while growing freely, in order to 
have the plant bring out its highest excel¬ 
lence. An ordinary sample may be had 
with common soil and cultivation, but as in 
the case of other garden products, the most 
thorough cultivation is found to be the most 
economical. 
For the general summer crop plants are 
easily procured from the gardeners, where 
one has not the facilities of a hot-bed upon 
his own premises. After the soil has been 
well worked, and manured to the depth of 
eighteen inches, put out the plants two feet 
apart, and if the ground be at all dry, put a 
quart of water around each plant. This 
will settle the dirt around the roots, and 
should always be practiced, except when it 
rains. When the plants are well started, 
say two weens alter setting, it is of great 
service to dig over the ground deeply, be¬ 
tween the rows. This furnishes fresh air 
and moisture to the roots, and makes them 
grow rapidly. When the heads are half 
grown, the outer leaves may be nroken and 
turned over them, to obstruct the light, and 
to make the heads of more delicate flavor 
and color. 
ABOUT TRENCHING. 
This is a method of treating the soil, es¬ 
pecially when designed for high cultivation, 
as in the garden, which we consider of very 
great value. It is simple and yet effective. 
We have seen very little written in this 
country upon the method of trenching, and 
we think but few understand the details. 
We, therefore, propose, at the risk of being 
a little tedious, to describe the process some¬ 
what minutely. We write not for the expe¬ 
rienced gardener, but for those who are just 
beginning. 
It cannot be necessary to enter into long 
arguments to show that a soil well pulver¬ 
ized and manured two or three feet in depth, 
will produce a larger and far more certain 
yield than one only cultivated to the depth 
of five or six inches. A single illustration 
will perhaps help the conception. 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2 . 
Some of the advantages of deep thorough 
tillage are being discussed in our articles 
on the “ Mechanical Treatment of Soils.” 
One of the most important of these is, the 
fact that deep culture guards against drouth 
as well as a wet season. The sun’s parch¬ 
ing is seldom felt more than a few inches 
below the surface. The plant growing upon 
No. 1, above, has roots always below such 
influence, and draws up moisture from be¬ 
neath during the severest drouth, while that 
in No. 2 is stunted, if not wholly killed, 
by the absence of rain. The operation of 
breaking up and stirring the ground deeply, 
has received the technical name of 
TRENCHING. 
This word is usually applied to those 
methods of plowing or spading in which the 
soil is not only deeply stirred, but also in¬ 
verted,—the lower soil brought to the sur¬ 
face. Deep plowing, where the furrow is 
turned, is called trenching, or trench-plow¬ 
ing, though trenching generally refers to op¬ 
erations with the spade or shovel, in the 
garden or on limited areas, in which the soil 
is moved more than one depth of the spade. 
True Trenching implies digging the soil 
two, three, or four spades (“spits,”) deep, 
and throwing the lower soil upon the sur¬ 
face, and the surface soil in the bottom of 
the trench. 
Bastard Trenching signifies stirring the 
soil two or more spits deep without changing 
the relative position of the surface and sub¬ 
soils. 
The following figures will illustrate true 
trenching, or simply trenching, as it is usual¬ 
ly termed : 
| a | b | a, on the left, re- 
a | c | e | g | presents the end of 
b | A | f | h | a long trench or fur- 
" Fig. 3. row, from which 
the soil has been removed one depth of the 
spade, and carried across the plot and placed 
upon the surface on the right. From b an¬ 
other spade’s depth has been in like manner 
carried over. 
The next operation is to take from c the 
width and depth of the spade, and put it in 
the place of the removed soil in b, thus ; 
The soil c is broken finely 
and mingled with manure 
Fig. 4 . during the process. The 
next operation is to take out d and place it 
upon c, thus: 
The process is continued 
by throwing e in the space 
I e | g 
c | d | f | h 
±1 
c I 
I e | g 
| f | h 
Fig. 5. « 
throwing/ upon it thus: 
When the whole plot has 
been gone over, the last 
left vacant by removing d, and 
d|f I i ff I 
c | e | | h 
Fig. 6. 
double trench is filled by putting a first car¬ 
ried over, into the bottom, and b upon it. 
This process and the following are sim¬ 
ple, easily performed by the unskillful la¬ 
borer after a little instruction, and it is 
scarcely possible to speak in too high terms 
of the great utility of digging over a garden 
soil in this way. During the trenching more 
or Jess manure may be worked in, according 
to the richness of the soil. 
To trench three or four spits or spade’s 
deep, is just as simple as the above, and it is 
usually advisable to go three spits deep, es¬ 
pecially in bastard trenching, described fur¬ 
ther on. 
TRUE TRENCHING THREE SPITS DEEP. 
a b c In this pro- 
a 
d | g I 
j 1 
surface soil. 
cess remove a b 
b 
e | h | 
k 1 
middle soil. 
c to the right as 
c 
f 1 i 1 
1 | sub soil. 
before. Put d in 
thus : 
Fig. 7. 
c; c 'mb; fin a , 
f 
1 g 1 
j 1 
Next putg- in the place left 
e 
d 
|h| 
1 i| 
e 1 
1| 
by removing/; h in place 
of e ; and i in place of d 
Flg. 8. 
appropriate manures, and filling the last 
trench with a b c first taken out. 
The above process is only applicable to 
good soils, of sufficient depth to allow bring¬ 
ing the lower soil upon the surface. But 
there are few soils as yet so deeply worked 
that it is safe to trust seeds and plants to the 
subsoils thus brought up. For the first year 
or two, especially when thorough under¬ 
drainage has not been performed, we advise 
BASTARD TRENCHING. 
This is performed as follows : 
a a is removed to 
the right as at first, 
and then b is thor¬ 
oughly loosened with 
a 1 c | e 1 g j 
b|d| f|hj 
Fig. 9. 
the spade and manures worked in to it. 
