PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 57 



Fig. 34. 



DB. GRANT'S "IONA GBEAT TKENOH-PLOUGH. 



The cut of a large plough, herewith given, Fig. 34, represents one of Dr. C. W. 

 Grant's huge implements, which he ordered to be made by the " Peekskill Plough 

 Company," of Peekskill, N. T., for the purpose of pulverizing the soil to a great 

 depth on lona Island, where his celebrated vineyard is located. With a strong 

 team of four to eight good mules, horses, or heavy oxen, such a plough will cut 

 furrows, by running twice in a place, thirty inches deep. The implement is made 

 very strong, and is well adapted to the purpose for which it was intended. Of 

 course, where the substratum is full of boulders and bars of hard-pan, it would be 

 difficult to draw any plough as deep as thirty inches ; yet on many kinds of soil 

 every square yard may be thoroughly broken to that depth. 



larger in ten years than they would have grown in twenty 

 years, if the subsoil had not been broken up so finely that 

 the roots could spread deep and wide. Small, narrow, and 

 deep post-holes in a compact subsoil will not answer. We 

 want to put in the subsoiler beam-deep, this way, cross ways, 

 corner ways, and diagonally, so that every particle of the 

 hard stratum may be broken up. It is always best, if prac- 

 ticable, to keep the thin stratum of soil or surface-mould 

 on the top of the subsoil, especially where the under-stratum 

 is compact, heavy, and less fertile than the surface-soil. 

 The writer once prepared heavy land for an orchard by 

 throwing the ground in high ridges with a three-horse 

 plough. As there was no sod on the surface, a ridge was 

 formed midway between the places for the rows, and the 

 ground was ploughed several times, until a broad and deep 

 middle furrow was produced where the trees were to grow. 



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