288 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



being- thoroughly mellowed and manured it becf^me the most pro- 

 ductive of any on the farm. It has since been plowed some 

 inches deeper, and still continues to be the best field on the farm. 

 Everybody knows that plants grow better in deep, loose soil than 

 in a shallow and compact one. The very laws of nature tell us 

 to till the ground well and deep. Go over the parched fields of 

 the South made sterile by years of wanton, reckless robbing- of the 

 soil and shallow plowing ; ask the mullains, the live-forevers and 

 the scrub pines which find but a scanty supply where corn and cot- 

 ton luxuriated ; ask the crumbling- ruins which your eye meets 

 on every side, once the comfortable homes of wealthy planters, but 

 long before the war abandoned for richer fields ; the very dreari- 

 ness and desolation which surround you exclaim, 'Obey the laws 

 of Nature.' By the hard work of man and beast the g-ronnd must 

 be broken up and deepened before hard frosts set in, wlion the al- 

 ternate freezing' and thawing' will finish the work of pulverizing' 

 and mellowing." So, much of Dr. Hexamer. These opposing views 

 no doubt were honestly expressed and certainly can be plainly un- 

 derstood. Now, " when doctors disagree who shall decide." We 

 must study the matter ourselves. We must view it over by the 

 light of science — let philosophy teach us the advantages of the one 

 and the injurious eff'ects of the other ; then put in practice what 

 we have learned from our study of the subject and watch the re- 

 sults. 



The advantages of deep tillage are so closely allied to the bene- 

 fits derived from thorough pulverization that the arguments we 

 have preser+ed in favor of the latter are equally applicable to the 

 former. ladeed, thorough pulverization cannot be secured with 

 shallow plowing. If we believe that the roots of plants need a 

 mellow bed in which to extend and search out the food which is 

 absolutely indispensable to their growth ; if we be.icve the soil 

 should be loosened in order that the air may penetrate it and come 

 directly in contact with the carbonaceous matter in the soil; if we 

 believe that the soil must be stirred, broken, loosened, that its capil- 

 larypowermaytherebybe increased, and the needed moisture always 

 existing below be drawn up in times of drought to water tlie famish- 

 ing plants ; if we believe that it should be made porous and light that 

 it may drink up the falling dew deposited upon its surface, we must 

 plow deep. Furthermore, an excess of moisture at or near the sur- 

 face causes land to be cold, from the fact that the heat is taken up in 



