In estimating the quantity of sand or its opposite required for changing the mechanical character of soil, it may be reckoned that 247 cubic yards of earth will cover an acre to the depth of two inches.

D, D, D. Points of discharge on the H. Blind ditch.

surface.

E. Double pitch drain.

I. Covered stone drain.

J. Covered pipe drain.

It is sometimes found necessary or convenient to make a garden in a wet spot. In such a case, draining, though requiring considerable labor, is indispensable.

If the spot be a dead level, in which it is only necessary or possible to sink the water from the surface, surround your garden on the outside of the fence with an open ditch of such

depth and width as you may deem sufficient for the purpose, always making the depth of your open ditch equal to its width at the surface, and grading the sides so as to make the width of the bottom equal to one third of the depth. If required, let blind ditches or covered drains, as deep as the open ditch, and discharging into it, be made to underlie the intersecting paths, as J, J, K, K in the garden plan. Upon descending ground, the main drains or blind ditches should not be made either parallel with the slope or at right angles to it. In the former case. they will be of little service, and in the latter will be liable to stoppages from want of current, which may convert them into mere dams, forcing the water to the surface at a lower point. If, then, the ground of your plot be sloping, and the water oozing to the surface, note carefully the upper edge of the line of ooze (A, A, Fig. 2), which is simply the natural drainage, whose current flows always in the direction of the ground slope. At an average distance of twenty feet above the upper edge of the ooze cut a blind ditch or drain three or four feet deep (B 1, Fig. 2), running diagonally across the plot to the side drain, C; or if it can be done with less labor, omit the side drains, and carry it outside of the fence, letting it discharge upon the surface at D. This may either be doubled, as B 1, B 2, D, D, or changed in form, as E, F, F, G, G, G, G, the latter mode being especially useful when the wet spot is in a hollow or dishing form.

BLIND DITCHES.

A blind ditch (H) should be cut in the same form as above directed for the outside open ditch around the garden plot; when it is thus opened, throw in by hand small loose surface stones, say from one to ten pounds in weight, until it is one third or one half filled with them; over these lay small brush, or shavings, or straw, or sod with the grass side down, and fill up with the earth that came out, rounding it a little directly over the drain to prevent surface water settling into it while the work is fresh.

COVERED DRAINS.

These are formed by setting flat stones edgewise along each side in the ditch, and fitting a covering of the same to rest upon them. Over this hollow drain, stones, such as are suitable for blind ditches, may be thrown, so far as seems convenient or desirable, the whole being covered with the earth and rounded as above directed for the blind ditch, thus combining the advantages of both forms of draining (I). The ditch for a covered drain need not be cut so wide at the surface as an open or a blind ditch, but may have the sides nearly perpendicular; and where flat stones can not be readily obtained, the drainpipes or tiles made by the potters may be used (J).

PLOWING.

The plow and harrow, wherever it is practicable to use them, are the most efficient known instruments in the proper preparation of the soil for the reception of seeds or plants. Much has been said and written to demonstrate the superiority of the spade, but it has not come into general use as a substitute, and is now less likely than ever to do so. Repeated deep, narrowsliced plowing and thorough harrowing are, beyond question or comparison, the best means that we possess for thoroughly pulverizing the soil, and so reducing its particles as to prepare them to enter into the composition of plants. How to plow well must be learned. Happy the youth who, to his other learning, willingly adds this. Plowing should be performed when the earth will crumble as it is turned up. The old Roman maxim, "Plow stripped, sow stripped," is a good, though not an absolute rule. Fall plowing, either plain or ridged, may be done without injury, even though the ground be pretty wet and the weather cold, the frosts of winter counteracting the ill effect that in other circumstances would result. But the cultivator who in spring turns up a wet, smooth, heavy furrow-slice to the bright, strong sun, will find his season's labor largely increased or his crop a failure.

Plowing should be performed with a strong team. On all good soils, and especially in a garden, it should be from twelve

to fifteen inches deep. What is called "cut and cover" plowing must be carefully avoided. The furrow-slice should be narrow, not much exceeding two thirds the width from the fore end of the land-side to the outer corner of the share. It should not be laid over quite flat, but at an angle of about forty-five degrees, which, for the benefit of very young readers I remark, is represented by each pair of lines radiating from the centre of this star. No care need be taken in plowing to fill any irregular holes that may happen to remain, nor effort of any kind made to help the plow perform its work, unless it be to foot over an obstinate tussock or sod. Smoothness is not an excellence in plowing. The land so plowed should be left for a time in its rough state, open to the influence of the sun and air; when, after thorough harrowing, it may be re-plowed or dug, as may be found suitable for the particular crop.

HARROWING.

Harrowing should be done after the land has lain plowed a week or more, as it may require, and, if practicable, when the surface soil is not dusty, but only moderately dry and perfectly friable. The "trituration" and reduction of the soil by the harrow will be more perfect when in this state than if quite dry; and if it should be wet, the harrowing must not be done except under a pressing necessity.

The first stroke of the harrow should always be "with," or in the same direction as the furrow; the subsequent strokes crossing it and each other at right angles, or obliquely, until the work is satisfactorily done.

RIDGING.

Ridging is performed with the common plow by throwing two furrows together, which thus meet upon and overlap a space about as wide as each of them; or with the spade, by digging the two furrows, and laying the earth up in ridge form upon the intervening space. In very light soils, which, however, should never be ridged for winter, or in the preparation of plowed land for crop ridging, the work is sometimes done by the use of a large and pretty strong double-mould plow, which seems to save half the labor, but seldom does its work well.

Strong loam or clay land, which, if plowed or dug in the fall and laid flat, might be injured rather than benefited, is greatly improved by careful ridging for winter, particularly if lime, ashes, or manure, or all of them, be previously applied, and are covered up or incorporated in the process of ridging.

SUBSOIL PLOWING.

In subsoil plowing, a deep furrow turned with the common plow is followed by another in the same track with the subsoil plow (Fig. 17, p. 39), which, being without mouldboards, simply loosens the subsoil without throwing it up to the surface. The convenient and obvious mode of performing it is to have two teams, the one with the subsoiler following the other in its rounds.

The depth of the two furrows may easily reach eighteen inches.

TRENCH PLOWING.

Trench plowing is performed by two teams following one another, as in subsoiling, but with common mouldboard plows, the mouldboard of the last, or trench-furrow plow, being generally somewhat longer than the first. It may, however, be well done with a good plow and one team, by simply plowing first to the depth of nine or ten inches, and repeating the stroke in the same furrow with longer gearing. It should be done with a steady team, and the plow be driven as deeply as two strokes in the same furrow can be made to carry it.

TRENCHING.

Trenching may be performed on a small or large plot with equal proportionate convenience. If, therefore, it is found necessary to the proper preparation of the garden plot, it may be deferred until the fencing is completed, or even be done gradually through a series of years, after the garden is used.

It consists simply in marking off from the end or side of any given field or piece of land of even width a strip, say two feet wide, and digging it out, and carting it or wheeling it to the opposite end or side, where it must be laid in a row all along,