408 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



In order to do such work properly we must do it understand- 

 ingly. Plants we know to derive a certain amount of their 

 nutriment from the soil, absorbing it^ through the ends of 

 their roots in solution in water. It is, therefore, necessary to 

 plough so as to expose the largest possible amount of this nutri- 

 ment, to allow the roots to permeate the largest possible portion 

 of the soil, and to assist in maintaining the amount of water 

 requisite to dissolve the nutritious matters, and carry them into 

 roots. The su])ply, or rather the exposure, of the fertilizing 

 matters in the soil, requires that it be loosened to a considera- 

 ble depth and well pulverized, because we thus lay open to the 

 action of the air, and to the attacks of roots, parts of the earth 

 which, in less thorough culture, would be confined within com- 

 pact masses. The ease with which roots can travel to seek 

 nourishment must obviously depend on the friable condition of 

 the soil. The presence or absence of water depends, more than 

 might be supposed, on the manner in which the soil is ploughed ; 

 because when it exists too largely, deep ploughing will lessen 

 its bad effects, and where it is wanting it is supplied during the 

 seasons of drought by the atmospheric condensation explained 

 in connection with underdraining. From this view of the case, 

 we see that our four, five, or six-inch ploughing is not what we 

 need. The demands of a luxuriant growth require something 

 more thorough, and in view of the fact that the roots of corn will, 

 when allowed by deep culture, travel to a distance of more than 

 two and a half feet from the surface, and that, under similar 

 circumstances, the roots of all our cultivated plants will extend 

 more than one foot from the surface — and to advantage too — it 

 is evident that the man who ploughs but five inches deep, when 

 he should plough fifteen inches, does but one-third of his duty ; 

 and, if he carries out this principle in all of his operations, he is^ 

 certainly not more than one-third of a good farmer — perhaps 

 not more than a ninth. On this subject of deep ploughing I 

 can speak with some authority, inasmuch as I have myself 

 ploughed to a depth of eighteen inches, and have seen its mani- 

 fest advantage. I believe that a deepening of three inches in 

 all of the furrows to be turned during the next year, would add 

 more to our national wealth than would the doubling of our 

 cotton crop. 



