No. 63.J 239 



tensively through it, or in other words it becomes a better filterer for 

 straining and ai)plying nourishment to their inhaling or absorbing 

 vessels. 



It is a well established fact or axiom in agriculture, that the 

 deeper the soil is, the more favorable will it be for the purposes of cul- 

 tivation. To produce this desideratum, several plans have been 

 adopted, either by thorough trenching with the spade, or by the use 

 of the subsoil plow. Air and water are the chiel instruments which 

 nature makes use of to enrich the earth. 



It is by close attention to passing events that any desired object 

 can €ver be obtained. As far as experiments have been made, we 

 find the earth liberally afl'ording its produce in tenfold quantity, and 

 the land that now supports an hundred inhabitants, may give equal 

 enjoyment to a thousand. But in this stage a well managed farm 

 must be carried on with more labor, more expense and more exact 

 skill. The most profitable system of culture is that which pays the 

 greatest per cent on the money laid out in cultivation, v^'hile the land 

 is yearly increasing in its productive powers, is a truth which no one 

 will attempt to deny. 



I have, for the last four or five years, had my attention directed, by 

 reading in the agricultural journals, to the great benefits derived from 

 subsoil plowing in England and Scotland, and have felt very anxious 

 to obtain an implement for that purpose. For the last three or four 

 years I have been making some experiments with merely an apology 

 for a subsoil plow, as it only penetrated about five inches below the 

 bottom of the furrow of the common plow; and the share was thin, 

 fiat, and only three inches wide at the broadest part; still, with this sim- 

 ple, and I might almost say, inefficient machine, I could see a very per- 

 ceptible difference in the appearance of the crop, especially in a 

 drouth. In 1841. I made an experiment in a field of corn, a part of 

 which I subsoiled with my skeleton or apology for a subsoil plow, 

 stirring the under soil only to the depth of five inches; in that part 

 of the field where the under crust had been broken, the corn main- 

 tained a healthful, dark color, while that adjoining, which had not 

 been stirred with the skeleton plow, turned yellow, leaves curled ami 

 looked sickly. In fact, the difference was so great that it was no- 

 ticed by those passing, although some distance from the road. I al- 

 so tried it for my carrots and beets, with the same decided effect. I 

 have tried it on a stiff loam and on soil inclining to sand, with equal 

 success. This I was not prepared for, as I supposed such soils would 

 not be benefited by the operation; but on examination I found the 

 subsoil, which had not been reached by the common plow", very com- 

 pact and nearly as hard as a beaten track on the surface. 



As for myself, and from my own experience, I entertain not a 

 doubt of the utility of deep plowing; not, however, by turning up 

 the under soil, but by following in the furrow made by the first plow, 

 with a real subsoil plow, which if properly constructed, pulverises 

 and stirs the earth from twelve to fourteen inches. Indian corn and 

 all tap-rooted plants in such a mass of loosened earth, would not, I 

 am confident, suffer much by an ordinary drouth. Like a sponge, it 



