132 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



quarter, which were sold at 26 s. per quarter, and this from 

 land that was let two years before at 2 s. 6 d. per acre. 



&quot; I sowed forty acres with oats, of the same flat of land that 

 had been pared and burnt, but not subsoil-ploughed, from want 

 of time. The produce of this was not more than 3 qrs. per acre, 

 and straw small and short a very fair proof of the advantage 

 of subsoil ing. 



&quot; I have now 100 acres of wheat and oats growing on what 

 was the very worst part of the whole property, and considered 

 perfectly useless. It has been drained, pared, and burnt, and 

 subsoiled exactly after the mode above detailed j and it looks as 

 promising as what was so good last year. The land upon which 

 I had potatoes, exhibits as decided a superiority.&quot; 



4. SUCCESS OF SUBSOILING ON THIN, PEATY GROUND. 1 think 



proper to subjoin the account of a Mr. Croft, of his operations 

 upon a different kind of land. 



Mr. Croft, of Hutton Bushel, who occupies some moorland 

 on the calc-grit, thus describes the effect of subsoiling : 



&quot; The surface soil is little more than half a spade deep, not 

 positively peat, but next akin to it ; at this time of year, (No 

 vember,) it was always fetlock deep: under this is the pan, 

 about two inches thick, and as hard as iron. We broke a pick 

 axe in getting a specimen. Below the pan is the rubbly soil, of 

 which I also send a specimen for analysis. On this land nothing 

 would grow. In summer, the crops would appear healthy and 

 good, but before harvest, always dwindled away. I found it 

 impossible to use the subsoil-plough with four horses ; but by 

 fixing a wheel to it, (which made it work much steadier,) and 

 using six horses, we got on tolerably well, though it was very 

 hard work for both horses and man. Immediately after subsoil- 

 ing, I sowed oats with Sinclair s grass seeds. I had a full crop 

 of oats, so heavy, indeed, that they were all flat on the ground, 

 and not ripe till November : the seeds have been hard stocked 

 all this year with sheep and young horses, which, as you know, 

 are the worst of all stock for year-old seeds ; but the herbage is 

 good, and the land quite firm. Before subsoiling, the land was 

 not worth 5s. an acre : it is now let at a guinea.&quot; 



&quot; In this case, the advantages of subsoiling were great and 

 immediate, and evidently arose from the drainage effected by 



