552 Deepening the Staple Soil. 



succeeded by an excellent crop of seeds. Tiiese are some of our 

 experiments, the whole record of which would fill a book, all 

 proving the utility of deep cultivation for roots and fallow on 

 clays and all other soils, except sand an(l peat or red bog ; also 

 proving that suhsoiling acted beneficially wherever there was a 

 mixture of stones in the subsoil, but was of no benefit, if not 

 injurious, on clay or sand subsoils. Now, as to the best imple- 

 ment to subsoil efficiently ; we have never found anything capable 

 of breaking up hard stony subsoil perfectly, except Smith of 

 Deanston's plough, with a wheel to guide the depth ; and 

 for ordinary gravelly loams, or gravelly and sandy clay. Gray of 

 Uddingston's subsoiler, which got the prize at Lincoln, meets 

 our wants best : Read's subsoiler did more to put the operation 

 out of use than any other thing we know of, and we found that 

 by its use we sacrificed efficiency at the shrine of reduced draught, 

 except in stiff clay while in a dry state ; it makes a mere rut 

 in the middle of the furrow, leaving at least two-thirds of the 

 subsoil unmoved, and jumping over all the hard parts. 



We have not trench-ploughed any land in this country, 

 except a few acres of old grass, when first breaking it up, and that 

 was only ploughed 2 inches deep by the first plough, and from 

 5 to 6 by the second ; an acre was ploughed 8 inches deep, and 

 all the rest was ploughed 5 inches, the whole done during the 

 winter of 1841, and, after applying ten quarters of lime, sown 

 with oats in March ; in May 3 cwt. of salt was applied per 

 acre. The crop was evidently the best on the shallow or 5-inch 

 ploughing ; and that on the part trench-ploughed was not a 

 whit better if as good as that ploughed the same depth at one 

 operation. The whole piece yielded above 10 quarters per acre. 

 It was all ploughed 10 inches deep in autumn, prepared by 

 grubber in spring, and planted for potatoes without manure ; 

 but, after harrowing down the drills 6 quarters of lime and salt, 

 which had lain mixed three months, were spread per acre, and 

 immediately- the drills made up again with the double-moulding 

 plough and again harrowed down, as the potatoes were then 

 almost through the ground ; the whole produced an average of 

 11 tons per acre. There was no difference in favour of, or against, 

 the parts either ploughed deep or trench-ploughed for the former 

 crop. The subsoil was a cold stiff clay free from stones, there- 

 fore we did not subsoil. This field was drained 3§ feet deep 

 before ploughing for the oats. 



While in Ireland we drained a field of what is termed bot- 

 tom land ; the soil of which has the appearance of being the 

 last few inches of turf bog left, after all the rest had from age 

 to age been used as fuel. This field had about 7 inches of 

 black bog-soil, under which was the drift of the mountain 



