UNDERDRAINIXG AND DEEP TILLAGE. ^37 



former is the best and the only pi'opcr method. It is now univer- 

 sally adopted by all scientific and well informed practical drainers, 

 b:th in England and America. 



The importance of deep culture is not sufficiently appreciated. 

 In this way alone can land be properly prepared for horticultural 

 operations. The soil of the flower garden, the fruit garden and the 

 kitchen garden, requires thorough trenching or digging over with 

 the spade to the depth of two or three, or better still, four feet 

 deep. Many gardens, it is true, succeed tolerably well with less, 

 but they yield little satisfaction compared with what would bo de- 

 rived from a deep and thorough pulverization of the soil. The grape 

 vine whose roots wander far and wide in search of food, and the 

 strawberry, whose roots appear to a superficial observer, to extend 

 but a little way, form no exception, in fact the best horticulturist 

 insist upon depth of soil for these, quite as much, if not more, than 

 for any other plants. 



But spade culture in a country where land is so cheap and labor 

 so dear as in Maine, is out of the question, except on a limited scale 

 and for special purposes. The farmer who has generally insuflicient 

 capital, and broad acres to go over, must enter upon the considera- 

 tion of deep culture from another standpoint ; its benefits being seen, 

 he desires to know how he can avail himself of them. Attention has 

 been drawn to the subject to some extent, and it is undoubtedly true 

 that plowing in general is now considerably deeper than formerly, 

 but in most instances it has been found that if much of the inert 

 subsoil was at once brought to the surface, the crops suffer, rather 

 than gain, unless a coi responding amount of manure is added to the 

 soil, and this is usually beyond the ability of farmers to supply. 

 In such cases, subsoil ploiving is of the greatest value. This oper- 

 ation by loosening the substratum Avithout bringing it to the surface, 

 and without burying the more fertile soil, allows the roots to pene- 

 trate deeply in search of food and moisture. They thus grow with 

 astonishing rapidity, and are more successful in resisting the attacks 

 of drought. Subsoiling is all the more necessary in lands which 

 have often been subjected to the action of the ordinary plow, because 

 every time the latter passes through the soil, it renders more firm 

 and impenetrable all that portion beneath it. The subsoil plow 

 ought to be a common implement instead of being as now, so rare 



