450 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the subsoil-plough to the land merely, (by which the most valu 

 able improvements have been effected,) but to the interesting 

 community of several hundreds, over which, as the agent of the 

 Deanston works or factory, he presided. By education, and by 

 paternal care and interest in their welfare, he has done what he 

 could for the improvement of their condition. He may be said 

 to have broken up and elevated the lower strata, that, by bring 

 ing them from a degraded condition to the light and air, and by 

 degrees preparing them to intermingle with the higher strata, he 

 might alike benefit both parties, and substantially improve the 

 character of the whole. 



Mr. Smith invented a plough for the express purpose of sub- 

 soiling, of which I design presently to give a plate. It is with 

 out a mould-board, but it has a feather on the share. Several 

 other ploughs x have been invented for the same purpose one 

 made under the direction of Mr. Pusey, called the Charlbury 

 plough, which proposed to perform both the operation of plough 

 ing the land and subsoiling at the same time. It was therefore 

 a common plough, and, several inches below the sole of the 

 plough, and behind it, there was attached a turned-up or crooked 

 tine or foot, calculated to descend into the soil in the furrow to 

 the prescribed depth. The draught of this plough must be of 

 course, by such an arrangement, considerably increased, and the 

 instrument would appear rather clumsy in. its operation. If it 

 did its work well, this is all that could be required. One of its 

 great merits is stated to be a considerable superiority over the 

 Deanston plough, in lightness of draught. I have never seen 

 it employed. Another subsoil-plough, which has been recom 

 mended, is a single iron tine or foot, attached to a proper frame 

 with handles, and which, being drawn through the furrow after 

 the other plough, loosens the soil in a single line. It would 

 seem to be an instrument of small expense, as well as simple 

 construction ; but it executes the work very imperfectly, not 

 stirring the whole ground, but dividing it only in single lines. 

 Mr. Smith s plough, having a small feather on the share, not only 

 moves the whole bottom of the furrow, but it raises a small 

 portion of the subsoil, and lays it against the side of the furrow 

 already turned over, thus mingling the subsoil and the upper 

 soil in some small portions together. This may be considered 

 as a decided advantage. But, to describe the practice of subsoil- 



