CORN. 65 



the same fact in relation to that — that there were fields of 

 sorghum perfectly good, yielding a rich and genuine juice, 

 surrounded by fields utterly destroyed. The answer to the 

 inquiry was always the same — it had been plowed from seven 

 to eight inches deep. That is a fact that I can vouch for. 



Well, sir, take the valley of the Scioto. Every one knows 

 the value of that valley for the purpose of raising corn. I sup- 

 pose there is hardly such another region upon the face of the 

 earth. The early settlers there never plowed their land. You 

 can hardly say that they tickled it with the plow. They ran 

 the plow along, and just lifted the ground a little. The result 

 was, that even with that imperfect and miserable cultivation, 

 they raised no less than seventy bushels to the acre. After a 

 while, it began to fall off, and the average crop now in that 

 valley is not more than forty bushels to the acre. Mr. John L. 

 Gill, of Columbus, Ohio, plowed one of those fields with a Michi- 

 gan plow, to the depth of eight or nine inches, and raised one 

 hundred and twenty-five bushels to the acre, while the farm- 

 ers all around were raising but forty bushels. I have seen 

 the same result again and again. I have no shadow of doubt, 

 that the true way is to plow, and the deeper the better, pro- 

 vided tlie soil is not in a poisonous condition. 



Having laid down the general proposition, I will modify it 

 by the conditions which I think ought always to be annexed 

 to a statement of this character. If, for example, there are 

 four or five inches of soil, and then rock underneath it, I 

 would not recommend plowing three inches into the rock. If 

 there were four or five inches of good soil on top, and a layer 

 of iron pyrites underneath it, I would not exactly recommend 

 going down ten or twelve inches on that land. If it was a 

 heavy, solid, cloggy clay, I would not recommend putting the 

 plow in twelve inches all at once ; but I have never yet seen 

 (and my life has been devoted to the examination of these 

 facts, over a large area) — I have never yet seen a soil where 

 it was not safe to take up an inch of the sub-soil every year, 

 where there is this poisonous or injurious matter in it. It is 

 in this way that I have seen the greatest ameliorations of the 

 soil produced. I have invariably found that plowing in the 

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