194 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 



Plowing, like the tariff, is "a. local matter," so 

 each farmer had better test the thing for himself. 

 On his own soil deep plowing may not work so well. 

 It is easily tested on a small scale in any event. 



Subsoiling. A subsoil plow is one that merely 

 runs in the furrow and loosens up the underlying 

 soil. It does not bring any of it up to the surface. 

 Subsoiled land has much greater water-holding ca- 

 pacity than before it was subsoiled. Sometimes this 

 fact is a detriment, if the land is poorly drained. 

 It is difficult to subsoil land that has in it boulders 

 or large stones. Subsoiled land erodes less than 

 other land, because the water sinks readily into the 

 subsoil and there is thus a great reservoir of satu- 

 rated earth which in turn gives moisture to the over- 

 lying soil. In all hilly regions where there is dan- 

 ger of erosion, as in east Tennessee, subsoiling has 

 been found to be a more useful practice. 



Not so much work has been done in subsoiling 

 for alfalfa as should be done. I have only done 

 such subsoiling as I described in the ditching work 

 done on Woodland Farm. That has convinced 

 me, however, that some day much land will in some 

 way be loosened up here and the yield of alfalfa 

 be increased at least 25%, and probably more. 



On the Eappahannock Eiver, in Virginia, J. F. 

 Jack has tested subsoiling in a limited way and the 

 result has been very markedly good. In truth sub- 

 soiling tested alongside of additional fertilization 

 gave markedly superior results. Other men have 

 related to me their experiences with subsoiling, but 



