136 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



subject of subsoiling and draining, without notice of an imple 

 ment which has, in these cases, proved of great utility ; I mean 

 Read s subsoil pulverizer. I have already given a description 

 of two subsoil-ploughs. This instrument, which can scarcely be 

 called a plough, is intended to accomplish the same purpose. I 

 have not seen it at work, but I have the testimony of several per 

 sons in its favor. The great advantages claimed for it are, that 

 it does its work effectually and with much less expense of labor, 

 on account of its suspension upon wheels, than other ploughs, 

 requiring only two horses to use it. &quot; The improvement,&quot; says 

 the inventor, &quot; consists in carrying the weight of the machine on 

 two pairs of wheels of equal diameter, and placed in the same 

 line, so that the implement offers no greater resistance to the 

 cattle than is required by the action of the shares or tines to 

 break up or stir the subsoil.&quot; It is represented as highly 

 useful, when fitted with tines or hoes, for scarifying between 

 rows of beans, turnips, mangel-wurzel, or potatoes, requiring one 

 or two horses, and also for working hop-gardens. I subjoin an 

 engraving of it. It is, of course, when used for subsoiling, de 

 signed to follow in the furrow of a common plough. 



kub-Pulverizer. 



It will be interesting to my readers, if I subjoin the report of 

 Mr. Parkes, the eminent engineer of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, upon the merits of this implement. 



&quot; An implement was produced at the Southampton meeting, 

 with the merits of which the writer afterwards became fully 

 acquainted. It was put to the test by the judges in a hard- 

 baked soil. The pan, or old plough-floor, of this field, had evi 

 dently never been invaded by agricultural tools; below six 

 inches it was as solid as centuries of ploughing and trampling 

 can be conceived to have made a tenacious loam, aided by a 



