THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 23 



them a few years. So he took his old plain lot, and plowed 

 two -furrows in a place, and turned up the biggest sight of 

 yaller dirt you ever laid eyes on. It looked for all the 

 world like so many acres of Scotch snuff. The result was 

 that he planted corn there, and did not get ten bushels to 

 the acre. The land was spilt, and it is of no use to talk to 

 me about stirring the subsile.&quot; 



Argument of course was out of the question, and the 

 Deacon showed his good sense by leaving the plow to 

 speak for itself. He subsoiled a field properly, and planted 

 with corn. He also induced Tim Bunker to try it on a 

 patch of his garden where he was purposing to plant car 

 rots and melons. 



The month of July brought a drouth in Hookertown. 

 Uncle Jotham s garden felt it severely, and he had plenty 

 of neighbors to sympathize with him in his lamentations 

 over withered vegetables. 



Tim Bunker called him into his garden one day as he 

 was passing. 



&quot; See here, I want you to look at my carrots, and see 

 how green they are where I used the Deacon s subsoil 

 plow. They are growing now as fast as if they had a plenty 

 of rain, and over there is a piece in John Tinker s garden 

 that looks as if the lightning had struck it. He put on a 

 good deal more manure than I did, and you see the dif 

 ference.&quot; 



&quot; Who would have thought it !&quot; exclaimed Uncle Jotham. 

 &quot; I guess you have put on water.&quot; 



&quot; Have you seen the Deacon s garden ? It is all as green 

 as a leek, and nobody would think there had been no rain 

 for three weeks. You see there is no getting round the 

 facts, and I have made up my mind to try a subsoil plow 

 this fall. It must be a great thing to guard crops against 

 drouth, and I shall try on the piece of land that I sow 

 with rye.&quot; 



