SUBSOIL-PLOUGHING CONNECTED WITH THOROUGH-DRAINING. 127 



successful with him. My respected friend, Mr. Spencer, on his 

 well-cultivated farm at Bransby, in Lincolnshire, complained of 

 its being ineffectual, from the soil being too adhesive and heavy, 

 and soon running together, and becoming as compact as before 

 breaking up. Mr. Black, in Yorkshire, the steward of the Earl 

 of Zetland, says that one of his subsoiled fields produced 

 thirty-five, and the other twenty-seven and a half bushels of 

 wheat per acre ; the field that produced the greatest number of 

 bushels per acre was subsoiled across the drains, the other par 

 allel with them ; ploughing across the drains he deems decidedly 

 the best method. This was in 1838. In December, 1839, one 

 of the fields was ploughed, but no traces remained of the subsoil- 

 plough having been used. &quot;I expected,&quot; he adds, - from the 

 complete breaking up of the subsoil, that the parts would have 

 remained distinct for years ; but such was not the case j they 

 had all run together, and were as compact as when first moved 

 by the plough, without even the appearance of a water-shake or 

 fissure. This I was not prepared to expect. Separated by a 

 fence only is another field of a similar description, which was 

 fallow at the same time, but net subsoiled ; the crop on this field 

 was quite equal to the other. A neighbor subsoiled one acre of 

 a field, which was sown with beans ; this field I frequently saw 

 through the summer, and, during that period, the part subsoiled 

 was by no means superior to the other.&quot; Another farmer of 

 Kirkleatham, in Yorkshire, whose experiments were conducted 

 in a judicious and effectual manner, says that he is satisfied that 

 subsoiling is of no permanent use upon his soil. The quality 

 of the land in all these cases is the same, and consists of a level, 

 uniform tract, of a peculiarly tenacious soil, called the lias clay, 

 containing, by analysis, more than 43 per cent, of alumina, or pure 

 clay. Mr. Black remarks, that &quot;the soil which will receive 

 the most permanent improvement from subsoil-ploughing is one 

 in which silica predominates ; indeed, all shallow soils of the 

 lighter kinds will be improved by it, and particularly so if there 

 is any moorland pan, or indurated incrustations, formed by the 

 weight of the plough going for a number of years at the same 

 depth, or from other causes. If the subsoil is of good quality, 

 and a greater depth of furrow is wished for, the subsoil-plough 

 may be used with great advantage ; the percolation of water pre 

 pares the subsoil for amalgamation with the surface. Strong 



