No. 85.] 143 



for the ameliorating influence of the frosts of winter, and the genial 

 warmth and showers of summer. 



Whatever may be the culture of the soil, whether it be in grass, in 

 grain, or in fallow — manured or starved — no matter how deep the 

 frost, how fierce the heat, or how refreshing the rain, a stilTand un- 

 kindly subsoil is still just what it was a century ago, and what it will 

 continue to be for ages to come, unless it be disturbed by mechanical 

 action. But let its natural compactness be but once effectually broken 

 up by the subsoiler, and then the frosts pulverize and render it per- 

 meable, rains carry down fertilizing matter, superabundant moisture 

 is let off, the temperature is raised, small roots pioneer downward in 

 search of food and room, and tend still further to fit materials lately 

 so barren, for an active and beneficial agency in sustaining vegetable 

 life. 



It is generally thought, and seems reasonable to believe, that in 

 porous soils, the rains leach the surface and carry down some of its 

 valuable productive qualities below the reach of ordinary plowing ; 

 and may it not be so, to some extent, with more tenacious soils ? Is 

 it not probable that stiff subsoils may have received and retained that, 

 which when brought to the surface and incorporated. with the upper 

 soil, will add somewhat to its fertility ? 



At each successive plowing then, let the depth of furrow be gradu- 

 ally increased, thus bringing up to the surface, by little and little, 

 the ameliorated material from below, until sufficient depth of soil is 

 obtained : and it seems quite probable that the occasional use of the 

 subsoiler in after years, would be amply rewarded by an increase of 

 crop, and may indeed be indispensable, again and again, to break up 

 the partially compacted subsoil, and to keep open that kind of under- 

 drain, so universally needed in stiff soils, and especially when under 

 grain. 



In the course of the summer I have had occasion to break up the 

 graveled waggon track of the highway near my dwelling, and have 

 done it wholly with the subsoiler and a single team. It was severe 

 work certainly for the horses — but with the soil plow, two just such 

 teams would not have stirred it an inch : and with team enoufjh to 

 perform the work, no ordinary plow would have borne the strain for 

 a moment. We thus completed speedily and in the best mannefj 

 with the team, what would have required a comparatively large out- 



