244 ■ [Senate 



working position, rests over the beam of the plow, whilst the instru- 

 ment is used for subsoiling in the bottom of the furrow just removed. 

 Thus the operation of removing the furrow and subsoiling, can be al- 

 ternately performed with the same implement, by the same plowman, 

 and the same team of horses, by a single movement of the mold-board, 

 which is done in an instant by the hand of the plowman at each turn- 

 ing. The additional weight of the mold-board serves to keep down 

 the plow whilst subsoiling in different grounds. The judges consi- 

 der this implement well contrived, and as being an important boon to 

 the small farmers, and as certain to give great facility to the extension 

 amongst them of the admirable system of subsoil plowing," 



ON SOILS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT. 



BY DAVID THOMAS J AURORA. 



Geologists inform us that soils were chiefly derived from the wear 

 and tear — the disintegration and decomposition of solid rocks. In 

 some tracts of country, the soil is nearly identical with the rock that 

 immediately underlays it, or partakes largely of its nature; but such 

 occurrences are rare in this county, (Cayuga.) So extremely active 

 was the deluge that swept over and rounded our highest hills, that 

 many a square league of stony strata was entirely buried by materi- 

 als that drifted from other parts of the country, and which have no 

 resemblance to the rocks they cover. 



Favorably for the southern parts of our county, that deluge came 

 from the north, sweeping over a limestone region, and depositing in 

 its course over our barren state, the rich collection it had made. 

 And here let us stop to consider: if that flood had come in an oppo- 

 site direction, bringing along the unproductive detritus of the moun- 

 tains, instead of our fertile fields and flocks and herds, we might have 

 witnessed nothing more inviting than scrub oak plains, and a few 

 wandering deer. 



Like other floods, however, its deposites were irregular, as its ve- 

 locity was increased or retarded — as it whirled into eddies, or rushed 

 onward in its course. Pure clay, indeed, can scarcely be found in 

 this formation; but all the varieties of loam, whether clayey, sandy, 

 or gravelly, occur; and some deep beds of both sand and gravel, are 

 so pure as not to discolor the water into which they are thrown. 



Such instances however are rare; and the grinding and mixing of 

 so many substances by that deluge, have been eminently beneficial to 

 our farms. No soil is fertile, says Humphrey Davy, " that contains 

 as much as 19 parts out of 20, of any one material or constituent." 

 On the contrary, soils that contain mixtures of many things, are gene- 

 rally very fertile, — provided that clay, lime and sand, form a large share 

 of the mass. When you see therefore, old mortar, the sweepings of 

 the smith shop, or leached ashes, thtown into the highway, you may 



