AGRICULTURE. 



The after disintegration of the soil is more 

 readily and cheaply performed. Its tempera- 

 ture is increased, and therefore a longer season 

 of growth is secured. The best proof of the 

 usefulness of underdraining, however, is to be 

 found in the fact that the English Government, 

 and many chartered companies and individual 

 capitalists, have freely loaned money on mort- 

 gage to English farmers for the purpose of un- 

 derdraining their soils, and that these mort- 

 gages are only active after a valuation in 

 other words, the mortgages only bear upon the 

 increased value of the soil consequent upon 

 underdraining. After the expenditure of mil- 

 lions of pounds sterling in this way, 'scarcely 

 an instance can be found where the income of 

 the farmer has not been increased sufficiently to 

 enable him to pay his underdrainage mortgage, 

 leaving him an increase of profit ever after, 

 while the nation at large is permanently ren- 

 dered wealthier by the system. Indeed it is 

 doubtful if England could at this time sustain 

 her population, were it not for the increase of 

 crops consequent upon the underdraining of the 

 land. 



Subsoil-ploughing. It is only within a few 

 years that the process of subsoil-ploughing has 

 been rendered practicable, for although known 

 for many years as a needed improvement in the 

 culture of soils, the tools presented for such use 

 were inadequate, until the invention of the lift- 

 ing subsoil-plough, by the writer of this article. 

 This implement is known as Mapes' lifting sub- 

 soil-plough, and is formed of a lozenge-shaped 

 wedge of steel, point forward, like a spear-head 

 laid horizontally, and forming a series of in- 

 clined planes, gradually rising from the point to 

 its bridge or highest part, being an elevation of 

 only five-eighths of an inch. This horizontal 

 wedge is sustained to a beam by two curved 

 knives placed vertically, and by these means, 

 as with other plough-beams, the instrument is 

 propelled in the usual manner. In practice, the 

 surface-plough precedes the subsoil-plough, mov- 

 ed by a separate team. The subsoil-plough fol- 

 lows with its beam in the bottom of the furrow, 

 thus disintegrating to a depth of 12 inches or 

 more, beneath the bottom of the surface fur- 

 row, raising the soil five-eighths of an inch, and 

 in so doing, causing the separation of particle 

 from particle, as in the soil over an ordin ary mole- 

 track, but to a width, at the surface, of twenty 

 inches, and this disintegration is more perfect 

 than between the particles of a soil turned over 

 in a furrow-slice, as with the surface-plough. 



The subsoil-plough insures to the subsoil full 

 depth for the travel of roots, also permitting 

 the entrance of atmosphere ; the surface loatn 

 is consequently gradually deepened to any re- 

 quired depth ; for while the loam as a new soil, 

 may have a depth of but 6 inches, and the 

 farmer is constrained to that depth of surface- 

 ploughing ; still, by the use of a subsoil-plough, he 

 may disintegrate without elevating the sub- 

 eoil, which will gradually change by atmos- 

 pheric and other influences into a loamy soil, so 



that, in after ploughings, the depth of the surface 

 furrow may be increased. Grass lands previously 

 underdrained and subsoil-ploughed, never run 

 out, and the full ratio of crops may be main- 

 tained for any length of time, by slight top- 

 dressings, of such amendments as have not yet 

 been progressed from the soil itself. 



Where subsoiling and underdraining are not 

 practised, mowing-lands and pastures are con- 

 tinually lessening in their products, so that the 

 farmer is compelled every few years to take his 

 land out of grass, and carry it through a series 

 of rotation of crops, before he can reestablish 

 a grass crop. The foregoing may be considered 

 as an epitome of the greater improvements con- 

 nected with the proper mechanical preparation 

 of the soil, together with the necessary rationale 

 for comprehending the causes of the benefits 

 to be derived therefrom ; and all other and after 

 manipulations are but the presentation of the 

 same desirable conditions to the surface soil, 

 in a more minute and extended manner, so as 

 to avail of the same laws more rapidly and 

 effectively. No farmer can reasonably expect 

 to avail of the largest amount of profit, who has 

 not prepared his surface and subsoil in the 

 manner we have indicated ; for, be his surface 

 cultivation what it may, and the use of fertil- 

 izers ever so liberal, his profit will not be as 

 great as that of his neighbor whose farm is un- 

 derdrained and subsoil-ploughed. 



Fertilizers. In old times, farmers sometimes 

 suffered their land to remain without crops for 

 the purpose of enabling it to gain in fertility. 

 This was accomplished by the slow reception 

 from the atmosphere of gases capable of ena- 

 bling the moisture in the soil to dissolve new 

 quantities of the inorganic constituents, storing 

 them up until, by their accumulation, the soil was 

 again capable of bearing crops. This was called 

 /allowing. The modern improvements, how- 

 ever, of underdraining and subsoil-ploughing, 

 will secure all the advantages of the fallowing 

 system, and in a much shorter time ; for it is 

 now admitted that " the true rest of the soil is 

 a judicious succession of crops." This result 

 is farther accelerated by presenting to the soil 

 the necessary food for plants in a progressed 

 shape, of organic origin, so that the growing 

 crop is fed independently of the soil in place ; 

 therefore permitting it, as in the following pro- 

 cess, to augment the quantity of plant food rap- 

 idly ; for it must be understood that moisture 

 is enabled to dissolve increased quantities of 

 each of the inorganic constituents, when the 

 roots of a growing crop are present. In the 

 use of fertilizers, the farmer should not inquire, 

 " with how small a quantity can I create a crop ?" 

 but rather, "how large a quantity may I use 

 with increased profit?" for, with an increased 

 quantity, not only does he increase the amount 

 and quality of a current crop, but he leaves the 

 soil increased in productiveness for the future. 



Manures of the farm. These are of the first 

 importance, and require the greatest amount of 

 care for their proper manipulation, admixture, 



