594 Subsoil Plowing. [December, 



Deep plowing is a practice so fully justified, and its benefits so 

 uniformly admitted, that to argue the question seems needless. Yet, 

 notwithstanding it is in accordance with the deductions of sound 

 philosophy, and the results of experience, there is still a wonderful 

 remissness in a great majority of fiirmers, particularly in the cultiva- 

 tion of field-crops. 



In the garden, the farmer yields to the dictates of common-sense 

 and experience. He plows, or spades to a good depth, presuming 

 that his extra labor will be rewarded with an extra growth of vegeta- 

 tion. But behold how sudden the transition ! He leaves his garden 

 with the conscious experience of the utility of deeply stirring the 

 earth, and at the same time aided by established scientific principles, 

 that the greater the depth of the soil, the more ample will be his re- 

 ward ; but with all the lights of science corroborated by his own 

 experience, he goes from his garden to his plow, spell-bound with 

 all his ancestral associations and delusions. ' My father practiced 

 skimming, and so must I !' Such at least is the practice — though 

 few will adopt the language — of nine-tenths of the farmers of our 

 country. There is no point in agriculture of more vital importance, 

 or upon which more depends, than upon the proper preparation of 

 the soil. And this is especially the case in the growing of the ce- 

 reals. And so long as any one continues the skimming process, 

 just so long his hopes will be blasted, notwithstanding the frequent 

 and constant admonitions of the unalterable laws of vegetation. By 

 reference to our article in this number on the sowing of wheat, the 

 diversity and contrariety of views on this subject are equally appar- 

 ent with those on the depth of sowing, quantity per acre, etc. 



One fact which we would here notice — which no doubt has often 

 been observed by farmers, is, that moist seasons — if the rain is not 

 too abundant — with a proper degree of warmth — are sure to promote 

 a vigorous and luxuriant growth of vegetation. Why so ? It is not 

 because so much moisture is absolutely necessary for such growth ; 

 but nature — ever mindful and ever ready to confer upon the tillers 

 of the soil its choicest blessings — does mechanically with water, what 

 the farmer neglects to do with the plow. The water softens the 

 subsoil, which the plow has never reached, rendering it permeable 



