428 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



fourth year it is simply breast-ploughed for barley. The fifth 

 and sixth years it is in grass. Thus, in the whole course of a 

 six years rotation, this land is only ploughed four times by men, 

 and three times with a single horse-plough. Another fanner in 

 the same neighborhood says that, upon this description of land, 

 any other than the breast-plough would not leave the ground suf 

 ficiently firm for wheat. Mr. Pusey, M. P., whose excellently 

 managed farm I have had the pleasure of repeatedly going over, 

 in remarking on the above accounts, says, &quot; Occupying similar 

 land, I may add that I never plough it deeply, but I repent of 

 so doing ; and am falling more and more each year, by the 

 advice of neighboring farmers, into the use of the breast-plough, 

 instead of the horse-plough. This manual labor is quite as 

 cheap, for a good workman can pare such hollow tender land at 

 4 s., or even at 3 s. per acre. It is possible that the drought of 

 our climate in Gloucestershire and Berkshire may be one cause 

 of the success of this practice in those counties, and that the 

 same soil, if transferred to Westmoreland, would require deeper 

 working. Therefore, without recommending shallow cultiva 

 tion in districts where deep ploughing has been hitherto prac 

 tised, I would merely warn beginners against plunging recklessly 

 into the subsoil.&quot; These examples are certainly well worth 

 considering. I do not understand that these practices at all mil 

 itate against the doctrine of the advantages to be obtained from 

 subsoiling. In cases where subsoiling and thorough draining 

 are not applied, this shallow ploughing may be preferred, as the 

 mingling of the cold and inert subsoil with so thin a surface of 

 vegetable mould would doubtless be prejudicial, at least for a 

 length of time ; but the improvement of such land by a system 

 of thorough draining and subsoiling is another matter, to which 

 I shall refer in its proper place. There are considerable tracts 

 of this moorish land that is, a thin, black, coarse peat, not half 

 decomposed, resting upon a cold and hard pan of gravel or 

 clay, or what some persons have mistaken for marl, in Massachu 

 setts, and other parts of the country, the improvement of which, 

 so far as my experience has gone, has been almost hopeless. 



While upon this subject, I may as well give the results of the 

 management of the first farmer referred to, and therefore subjoin 

 them. &quot; By this mode of management, an economical system 

 is followed up through the whole course, by being nearly all 



