86 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



subsoil plow. If there be no escape for the moisture which 

 may have settled below the surface, the subsoil plow has 

 been found injurious rather than beneficial. By loosening 

 the earth, it admits a larger deposit of water, which requires 

 a longer time for evaporation and insensible drainage to 

 discharge. When the water escapes freely, the use of the 

 subsoil plow is attended with the best results. The earth 

 being thus pulverized to a much greater depth, and incorpo- 

 rated with the descending particles of vegetable sustenance, 

 affords an enlarged range for the roots of plants ; and in pro- 

 portion to its extent, furnishes them with additional means of 

 growth. The farmer thus has a means of augmenting his 

 soil, and its capacity for production, wholly independent of 

 increasing his superficial acres ; for with many crops, it mat- 

 ters not in the quantity of their production, whether he owns 

 and cultivates 100 acres of soil, one foot deep, or 200 acres 

 of soil, half a foot in jdepth. With the latter, howeyer, he 

 has to provide twice the capital in the first purchase, is at 

 twice the cost in fencing, planting and tillage, and pays 

 twice the taxes. The underdrained and subsoiled fields have 

 the further ad vantage, of securing the growth and steady de- 

 velopement of their crops during a season of drought ; as 

 they derive their moisture from the atmosphere in part, as 

 before explained, and from greater depths, which are fre- 

 quently unaffected by the parching heat. This secures to 

 them a large yield, while all around is parched and withered.* 

 A more enlarged and general, or what may justly be 

 termed, a philanthropic view of this system, will readily de- 

 tect considerations of great moment ; in the general heathful- 

 ness of climate, which would result from the drainage of 

 large areas, that are now saturated, and in many instances 

 .covered with stagnant waters, and which are suffered to pol- 

 lute the atmosphere by their pestilential exhalations. 



SPRING AND SWAMP DRAINING-. 



Springs are sometimes discovered, not by a free or open 

 discharge of their water, but in extensive plats of wet, boggy 

 lands, which are of no further use than to mire the cattle, and 

 bear a small quantity of inferior, bog hay. These springs 



* The experienced reader will sometimes notice the same ideas, re- 

 peated under different heads. He must bear in mind, that this work is 

 intended for learners, and that it is of more consequence, thoroughly 

 to impress their minds with important principles, than to study brevi- 

 ty in communicating them. 



