during the last Four Years. 179 



will probably be thorough- drained, and at no distant day a soaked 

 field will be as little tolerated as ruined barns or foul crops ; but 

 I am anxious to see a great exertion made at once for this national 

 object, and, if I have dwelt too long on the matter, my excuse 

 must be this, — that it is vain to speak of good farming until we 

 have land which deserves to be farmed well. There can be no 

 profit in farming highly land on which stock does not thrive, and 

 on which half the crop may be drowned by one rainy week : wet 

 land is well adapted for slovenly husbandry. 



Before we leave wet land I ought to say one word on subsoil- 

 ploughing, but the accounts of its effects are as yet contradictory. 

 It does not appear to suit very light soils, as it makes them too 

 loose, unless indeed there be a retentive subsoil under them, near 

 the surface ; nor very strong clays,"^ since these run together again. 

 As it should only be done after draining, we can scarcely ascertain 

 which of the two operations has produced any improvement that 

 may have arisen. It seems, however, to do most good where the 

 subsoil is a mixture of rubble and clay ; and 1 have heard of one farm 

 of that nature, near Taunton, which had been thorough-drained 

 without benefit, but on which the subsoil-plough produced a large 

 immediate increase of crop. This was a red clay, and it was on a 

 red clay also that Mr. Thompsony found subsoiling to have answered 

 in Yorkshire. It appears to answer best on those parts of the 

 country, the northern and western, where most rain usually falls. 

 1 would try it, however, after draining on any strong land ; but 

 the original plough seems to me too bulky in its underground 

 parts, as the thick iron sole on which it rests can only be forced 

 through the land by great .exertion of the cattle. J The imple- 

 ment shown by Mr. Nugent at Bristol must stir the land as tho- 

 roughly with its thin deep tines or teeth fixed in a framework 

 above ground. Where the subsoil is very stony a single tine will 

 move it thoroughly. Subsoil-ploughing, however, should be tried 

 cautiously, as in two instances — one a farm near Exmoor, in 

 Somersetshire, where the subsoil is a wet blue slate ; the other 



* There is great ambiguity in the term clay, as used in different districts : 

 sometimes, when a clay is said to have been reduced to mould by subsoil- 

 ploughing, it turns out to be what those who live upon a strong clay 

 would not consider a clay. A really strong clay when dry has no rough- 

 ness or grittiness which show the presence of sand, but is smooth like 

 soap, though extremely hard and diflicult to break with the hand. If it 

 contain lime it is marl. 



t Journal, vol. ii. p. 30. 



% See the Report of the Judges of Implements. The mechanical con- 

 struction of this ingenious invention will be improved, I believe, at Lord 

 Ducie's Iron-works. Mr. Gabell, of Crickhowell, works his single-tine sub- 

 soil-plough 18 inches deep with two horses. — Journal, vol. ii. p. 421. I have 

 also found my own answer the purpose.— Ibid., i. 433. 



