THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



95 



tral survey to which we have not referred, viz., the ne- 

 cessity of it for the purpose of registering titles and 

 simplifying the conveyance of land. It is well known 

 that no small portion of the bulk of a title-deed is made 

 up of verbal descriptions of the boundary of the pro- 

 perty to which the deed refers. All this might be 

 avoided by reference to an authenticated copy of a 

 cadastral map or map of public record. The (juestion 

 then remains, whether it is the duty of the Slate to con- 

 struct such a map at the public expense for the benefit 

 of a particular class ; that difficulty, however, is ob- 

 viated by means of the compromise we propose, 

 under which the landed property should pay the differ- 

 ence of expense between the construction of a mere 

 geographical map on the scale of one inch to the mile 

 and the cost of constructing a cadastral map on the 



large scale — not to be published, but to remain of recoi'd, 

 and of which every proprietor should be furnished with 

 a certain number of copies. 



The Scots are a shrewd, sensible, calculating people. 

 Many things succeed under Scottish management 

 which are lamentable failures in England— the joint- 

 stock Banking system for one. Let them consider well 

 the compromise we have proposed. If they do not con- 

 sider a cadastral map worth the difference between the 

 construction of such a map and , the construction of a 

 mere geographical map, we should then say that the 

 recent vote of the House of Commons is perfectly right 

 — and that the map on the large scale is unnecessary, a 

 waste of money, a job, or whatever harsh name its 

 opponents choose to call it. 



THE ADVANTAGES OF DEEP CULTIVATION. 



There is no doubt whatever that the English farmer is 

 thoroughly awakened to the importance of deeper and 

 more perfect tillage. While anxious after new sources of 

 portable manure, grateful for the boon of the steam- 

 thrasher, and patiently waiting for improvements in 

 reaping-machines, he is more than ever alive to the ad- 

 vantage of being able to multiply mechanically the pro- 

 ducing power of his fields. This beautiful island of ours 

 cannot be stretched to a broader area ; neither can we 

 construct estates two stories deep, one gallery of ground 

 upheld above another, like John Martin's Babylon 

 gardens ; yet everyday is creating new demands for in- 

 creased yields of agricultural produced Thanks to the 

 implement makers, we are continually receiving fresh 

 tools and machines to render tillage easier, and to as- 

 sist us in adding to the four or six inches of immemorial 

 staple an equal thickness of good soil lying immediately 

 underneath it, thus following the urban custom of gain- 

 ing room vertically when it is denied to us in ground- 

 superficies. The spread of surface-cleansing by paring 

 and grubbing, mainly brought about by a supply of 

 cheap, efficient, and economically-working implements, 

 is really wonderful ; and with its extension has also 

 widened the view of the farmer, as to the far greater 

 amount of autumn-cleaning which would be worth 

 doing had he but motive-power enough for its perform- 

 ance. And there is no question that the approval and 

 practice of deep tillage is also gaining ground. Intelli- 

 gent agriculturistshavenot worked their teamsin Hercu- 

 lean ploughing of fifteen-inch furrows and crumbling 

 stiff-clay subsoils, without spreading the fame of their 

 results ; practice has not toiled or science preached in 

 vain ; and at the present time webelieve the most valued 

 boon to the farmer would be the placing in his hands 

 a power that could make trench-work and deep-stirring 

 easy, instead of costly and somewhat dreaded operations. 

 Prizes for ploughs to work twelve inches deep are no 

 longer deemed preposterous 3 and as we come nearer and 

 nearer to the successful hauling of draught implements by 

 the steam-engine, the production and testing of the best 



heavy-land plough becomes a closer struggle between 

 manufacturers, and a livelier subject of attention to the 

 business farmer. In the columns of agricultural jour- 

 nals and periodicals we have continual exhortations to 

 increase our teams, strengthen our whippletrees, and 

 dip the share deeper; and the National Society's Jour- 

 nal gives us essays on the best methods of deepening the 

 staple soil, and on the effects of the atmosphere upon the 

 newly upturned earth. The Marquis of Tweeddale 

 devises a most effective subsoil-plough, and Mr. Stevens 

 makes known to the world the extraordinary benefits 

 on a large scale which have followed its laborious em- 

 ployment. Various inventors are favouring us with 

 new subsoilers, and Cotgreave's trench-plough seems 

 to have come opportunely for the application of steam- 

 power to deep tillage. 



There is no occupier who would not like to have his 

 land in as fine tilth and as clean as a garden, deeply 

 worked, pulverized, and enriched; only (as he will 

 tell you) he must raise and be able to market green- 

 grocers' and fruiterers' produce in order to make such 

 perfect cultivation pay. As long as corn and roots and 

 fodder are worth no more per acre than at present, 

 there is a limit to the amount of tillage it will answer 

 to bestow in growing them. Give him a power cheaper, 

 stronger than that of horses, and still more than that of 

 workmen ; a power that eats only when at work, never 

 wearies, and will accomplish the tillage wholesale at 

 the right time, instead of being obliged to plod on bit 

 after bit, often in unsuitable weather, and he will soon 

 show what an augmentation of produce, and how many 

 other advantages, follow a better style of culture. 



Even in the virgin soils of America, this need for deeper 

 and better husbandry is already felt. In a New York 

 paper we read, " The great error of Indian-corn cul- 

 ture in the west is shallow ploughing ; to which we may 

 add, continuing the crop upon the same land for a long 

 term of years without rotation. There are tens of 

 thousands of acres of corn land in the west that have 

 never been ploughed more than four inches deep, 



