208 CULTIVATION. 



tion will become, in a single year, so altered by ex- 

 posure, tlmt it will equal the rest of the soil in 

 fertility. 



Often where lime has been used in excess, it has 

 sunk to the sub-soil, where it remains inactive. A 

 slight deepening of the surfoce plowing would mix 

 this lime with the surface-soil, and render it again 

 useful. 



When the soil is light and sandy, resting on a 

 heavy claj'- sub-soil, or clay on sand, the bringing up 

 of the mass from below will improve the texture of 

 the upper parts. 



As an instance of the success of deep plowing, we 

 call to mind the case of a farmer in New Jersey, 

 who had a field which had yielded about twenty-five 

 bushels of corn per acre. It had been cultivated at 

 ordinary depths. After laying it out in eight-step 

 lands (2J: feet,) he plowed it at all depths from five 

 to ten inches on the different lands, and sowed oats 

 evenly over the whole field. The crop on the five 

 inch soil was very pooi', on the six inch rather better, 

 on the seven inch better still, and on the ten inch 

 soil it was as fine as ever grew in New Jersey ; it 

 had stiff straw and broad leaves, while the grain 

 was also much better than on the remainder of the 

 field. 



There is an old anecdote of a man who died, leav- 

 ing his sons with the information that he had buried 

 a pot of gold for them, somewhere on the farm. 

 They commenced digging for the gold, and dug over 

 the whole farm to a great depth without finding the 



