764 The younial of Forestry. 



brought into greater activity ; the raiu percolates more freely, carrying 

 with it, to be detained by a well-pulverised soil for the use of plants, 

 the carbonic acid and ammonia of the air. The repeated exposure of 

 the soil to the general action of the atmosphere, frost, &c., by means of 

 ploughing, subsoiling, and other agricultural operations, as is now fully 

 acknowledged, causes a decomposition, and likewise an assimilation of 

 hitherto inert mineral matter, while the carbonic acid and ammonia of 

 the air unite with the various acids of the soil. Reliable authorities 

 have explained that the atmosphere contains every organic constituent 

 of the plant, in the form of ammonia, carbonic acid, water, &c., and of 

 these it is considered there is a sufficiency for the proper growth of 

 our crops, if we would but open up and loosen the pores of the earth 

 for their reception, affording easy access for the roots of our plants, 

 enabling them to ramify, spreading themselves in search of their 

 natural food. 



That all soils are benefited by well-timed and deep culture few 

 will hesitate to acknowledge, but on clayey lands especially these 

 operations will show a strongly marked and profitable result. Cold 

 and stifi", they are more difficult to deal with than a lighter soil, 

 in many instances adhesive to a troublesome degree, yet, with proper 

 and judicious culture, will attain to a proportionately higher standard 

 of fertility than ground of a lighter nature, thus recompensing 

 tlie tiller for any extra outlay. "Jethro Tull," remarking on the 

 advantages of the thorough and deep moving of the soil and sub- 

 soil, expresses it as opening up "fit pastures" for tlie young and 

 tender rootlets, enabling them to penetrate the lower stratum of the 

 land in search of that food an all-ruling Power has placed there in 

 store for their use, requiring in man to exert aright that controlling 

 intelligence with which he is gifted. By applying labour, intelligence, 

 and energy, he can convert the constituents of this hitherto supposed 

 " dead matter " into substances designed for the full development of 

 vegetable life, in its turn sustaining animal creation and the nobler man. 

 There are other advantages which we cannot afli'ord to overlook, 

 in the great importance we attach to a well-cultivated and pulverized 

 soil, and which can hardly be overrated without omitting to recognise 

 other factors which conduce to add elements tending to the success 

 we rely on, as a recompense for the extra labour, care, and expense 

 bestowed; that is, in opening up the land, we strengthen and increase 

 its power to absorb the fertilizing gases of the atmosphere, making it 

 more retentive of those substances added to the land in manure, 

 thereby encouraging the solicitude of the soil, — if the expression may 

 be allowed, — to prevent the loss of the most valuable constituents 

 applied. The power of absorption greatly differs with the nature of 

 the soil, and this valuable property will be accelerated and quickened 



