California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



fym^mnUim. 



DEEP PLOWING. 



BY MECHANIC. 



D. AoRictrLTUKisT : The correspon- 

 dence on this subject, in your last 

 issue, reminded me of the fact that 

 I had promised you an article on 

 the same subject, and I propose to 

 state facts, as they have come under my 

 observation, believing demonstration to 

 be the crowning point of theory. 



In the famous Genesee valley (when 

 it was new) some of the most successful 

 farmers were advocates of shallow plow- 

 ing, which succeeded for a time in pro- 

 ducing fine crops. In a few years the 

 shallow surface appeared to be exhausted 

 01 its fertility and produced very light 

 crops, when deep and thorough pulver- 

 izing of the soil, to the depth of ten or 

 twelve inches, again produced heavy 

 crops. 



The old, worn-out fields of Montgom- 

 ery county, and other counties of Mary- 

 land and Delaware, in 18-18, could be 

 bought for 75 cents to $1 50 per acre. 

 Shallow plowing and repeated cropping 

 wore out the surface, and deep plowing 

 — with a little guano for the first two or 

 three crops, and the straw of the crops 

 returned to the soil, with a little lime for 

 a solvent — made the worn-out fields more 

 productive than when the laud was new. 



I saw an old field of sixteen acres, in 

 Jackson county. 111., planted to corn in 

 1866. ■ The field had been worn out by 

 shallow plowing and repeated cropjiing 

 with corn. Four acres of the field were 

 plowed thirteen inches deep, three acres 

 five inches, and the balance nine inches 

 deep. The whole was thoroughly pul- 

 verized, but no manure was used. It 

 was all planted in corn, on the same daj', 

 and all tilled in the same manuer. Wheu 

 the corn was ten inches high there was a 

 rain of -±.2G inches in forty-eight hours, 

 and no more rain until the crop was ma- 

 tured. The yield was eighty bushels per 

 acre on the jjart plowed thirteen inches 

 deep, forty-five bushels on that plowed 

 nine inches, and about five bushels of 

 "Vubbins" on the five-inch plowing. 



In 1867 there were sixteen acres sum- 

 mer-fallowed and thoroughly pulverized 

 to a depth of fsurteen inches, on an old 

 farm of 170 acres on the Bois Brule bot- 

 tom, about eighty miles below St. Louis, 

 on the Mississippi riven- In the Fall it 

 was ridged for corn and planted in the 

 Spring — the first of April. The balance 

 of the farm was plowed in the Spring 

 twelve inches deep and planted in corn. 

 The farm was settled by the Fi-ench at 

 the time of the settlement of Koskoskia, 

 about 1GC6. It had never (before) been 

 plowed over four inches, and repeatedly 

 cropped in corn. The place had been 

 rented for several years for ten bushels 

 per acre, yet seldom raised enough to 

 pay the rent; but in 1867 the ground and 

 corn was thoroughly tilled, and the yield 

 ou the summer-fallow was 165 bushels 

 per acre, and 80 bushels per acre ou the 

 spring plowing. 



I came to Marysville, California, in 

 April, 1871. I had a letter of introduc- 

 tion to Wra. P. Harkey, of Sutter county. 

 Mr. H. showed me his wheat field, which 

 had been summer-fallowed and tho- 

 rniighly pulverized the previous summer 

 t'l the depth of eight or nine inches. 

 I'lie wheat looked healthy and vigorous, 

 iiitwithstandiug the bed rock was near 

 he surface and the wheat in the neigh- 

 Jorhood a failure. This deep and tho- 

 ough tillage yielded about twenty-five 

 Jushels to the acre. 



Mozo Ellis, of the Placer Mills, Marys- 

 ville, had a farm not far from Mr. Har- 

 key's, but nearer the Buttes, and deeper 

 to the bed rock. Mr. Ellis informed me 

 that he had a piece of wheat that season 

 which was summer-fallowed twelve 

 inches deep, and yielded thirty-five bush- 

 els to the acre. Mr. Ellis also informed 

 me that the same dry season ho tilled a 

 piece for grapes very deep and thorough- 

 ly, and that he could, with one scrape of 

 his foot, reach moist ilirt any time in 

 the summer. 



I have given the successful experi- 

 ments above mentioned as correctly as 

 my memory serves me. If I have made 

 any mistake, it can be ascei'tained in the 

 last two cases by an api^eal to Messrs. 

 Harkey and Ellis. The former is now 

 Sheriff of Sutter county, and the latter 

 owns and runs a flouring mill at Tehama. 

 Send them this communication, and ask 

 them wherein I have erred. 



A few more remarks, and my long ar- 

 ticle will close. First — From forty-two 

 years of close observation, with miich of 

 my time spent in farming, and being an 

 earnest advocate of deep and thorough 

 culture — with all this, I am free to ad- 

 mit that there are two sides to this ques- 

 tion. For instance, where virgin soils 

 are very open and fertile, as in the Gen- 

 esee valley and California, shallow cul- 

 ture often produces fine crops until the 

 ground becomes packed by repeated 

 cropping and working. 



Second — I have noticed, in some in- 

 stances, in California, that where land 

 was plowed deep and the clods not pul- 

 verized by rain or thorough culture, the 

 crops sufi'ered much more from drouth 

 than similar laud that was tilled shallow 

 and made fine. 



Third — I have had the best success by 

 deep and thorough culture for small 

 grain, as well as corn, and found the 

 roller, after seeding, beneficial; but when 

 the top became tight, by rain after roll- 

 ing, and liable to bake, the trouble was 

 remedied by a thorough harrowing with 

 a fine-tooth harrow, with the teeth well 

 slanted back to prevent tearing up too 

 much grain. What grain was torn up 

 by the harrow, was replaced by the extra 

 stooliug of the balance. The harrowing, 

 making the surface fine and loose, makes 

 a good mulch to prevent the escape of 

 moisture from below. I have tried this 

 with wheat twelve inches high with ben- 

 efit. 



Fourth — I have often taken pains to 

 discover the depth to which the roots of 

 small grain penetrate the earth, and 

 where the soil was loose and thoroughly 

 tilled have usiially found them at the 

 bottom of the furrow, and often strug- 

 gling (in a dry soil) to go deeper. There 

 is no danger of tilling good corn land too 

 deeply, and it is important for corn, if 

 you desire thick stalks and large ears, to 

 plow deeiJ, pulverize fine, plant early, 

 work the ground deep and often while 

 the corn is youug, and when the lateral 

 roots start keep the surface fine until the 

 corn shades the ground. If the soil and 

 climate are good you have nothing fur- 

 ther to do, except to harvest a lai"ge crop 

 in the fall. 



Every farmer who has corn land should 

 make corn one of his rotation of crops, 

 and feed it to hogs or other stock, and 

 return the manure to the soil. I am 

 very skeptical about the inexhaustible 

 fertility of any soil when repeated crop- 

 ping is the rule and no return made to 

 the soil. Compensation is the universal 

 law of nature, and it is easier to impover- 

 ish a good soil than to renovate one that 

 is worn out by bad farming. 



Whatever promotes a comfortable and 

 harmless state of mind promotes health. 



TREE CULTURE. 



Feiend HERitiNo: — Your valuable pa- 

 per has given hints and instructions on 

 nearly every point in farm and garden 

 matters, but I don't remember anything 

 in regard to the best kind of pears to graft 

 on the quince. I read some time ago that 

 it was not best to graft Bartlott on quince 

 stalk, but no reasons were given. I wish 

 to graft a lot of seedling quince (set in 

 place), and would like to graft some to 

 Bartlett. If covenient, please tell me 

 in March number if there are any real 

 objections to Bartlett, and what are the 

 best varieties to dwarf. I would like to 

 know if there is any fruit I can success- 

 fully graft on white mulberry stalk. 



The more experience I have with seed- 

 ling trees, the better I like them. Where 

 it is anyways difiicult to start an orchard 

 a tree that will not throw up an abun- 

 dance of suckers is worth only half- 

 price. Many of our long-shanked, 

 smooth-bodied, short-root-grafted trees 

 will not sprout about the trunk unless 

 injured by some damage to the top or 

 depi-edations of borers; then Mother 

 Nature makes one more desperate endea- 

 vor to assert her rights, and shade the 

 trunk in her own unrivaled style. The 

 orchardist and gardener should assist 

 rather than defeat Nature. I don't know 

 a single point in favor of a small; suck- 

 erless tree. 



A good growth of small suckers is a 

 great protection from the many accidents 

 to which even well cared for trees are lia- 

 ble, while the trunk at and near the 

 ground will be better shaped and tougher 

 in fiber for their attachment to it. As 

 much root is made to develop a foot of 

 sucker as a foot of limb, and bj' the 

 time the root is all needed to sustain the 

 top and fruit, the tree will be able to 

 dispense with the sucker. Nature al- 

 most invariably starts her most stalwart 

 trees as bushes. Any one who has taken 

 out oak grubs knows what fine, loose, 

 moist soil is found close about the 

 stump. The close overhanging green 

 bush has gathered moisture from every 

 dew, and the leaves and grass have rotted 

 and enriched the spot they could not be 

 blown away from. It is only in close, 

 moist swamps that trees naturally run 

 up without sprouts from the root. 



There has been so much written and 

 said about the slovenly look of suckers 

 around trees and the beauty of tall, 

 straight trunks, that I feel I am on dan- 

 gerous grdund. I can hardly blame any 

 one for casting admiring glances at a 

 solid, Samson-built, mature man in close 

 fitting pants; but will any sane person 

 say that the immature, spindle-shanked 

 bo}-, in short coat and tights, is a thing 

 of beauty? But the youug lady, with her 

 drapery gradually increasing in diameter 

 from the waist to the grouud, is shaded 

 and protected on natural principles. 

 May fashion, in the near future, revive 

 the hoops and leave oft' the piillbaohi. Na- 

 ture will revenge herself for every sin 

 and indiscretion against her laws. I ex- 

 pect she has allowed the pnllbacks as a 

 punishment to us for saying and writing 

 so many hard things about ibe way she [ 

 starts, protects and develops her young 1 

 trees. C. A. W. I 



Cozy Nook, Feb. 9th, 1876. 



BEPLY. 



The objection to grafting the Bartlett 

 pear on the Quince is, that even on a 

 strong pear stalk it is a delicate grower— j 

 makes a slender tree. On the quince, 

 which still more reduces the vigor and 

 flow of sap, it has not enough vitality to 

 make a handsome tree or produce good 

 fruit. The strongest growing pear trees 

 seem to do the best upon the quince. 

 The Easter Buerre, Duchess and Winter j 



Nellis have been proved to do well upon 

 the quince. Such varieties of pear as 

 m.ake a good deal of sap wood on their 

 owTi stalks will, by becoming dwarfed, 

 produce fruit more proliflcally and some- 

 times of better quality on the quince 

 than on pear roots. 



2. The only thing that will pay to 

 graft into the white mulberry, so far as 

 we know, is Downings ever-bearing va- 

 riety. This makes a very nice fruit, as 

 also a fair ornamental tree. 



3. Although many orchardists might 

 call the allowing of suckers to grow very 

 slovenly, yet we believe it would be bet- 

 ter than the close pruning that many of 

 them give their trees. We know of some 

 who rub off every bud and trim oft' every 

 side shoot as if they were enemies instead 

 of friends to the health of the tree. Our 

 advice is, don't rub oft' a single bud from 

 the trunk and lower limbs. Let every 

 one grow; but keep them nipped or cut 

 back so short that they do not get too 

 much in the way. If a tree has its en- 

 tire trunk sheltered by a growth of suck- 

 ers and spurs it will grow all the health- 

 ier and stronger for it. We would 

 encourage them to grow, and make fruit 

 spurs from the ground up. 



EXPERIENCE OF A BUSINESS 

 MAN AS A FARMER. 



Many men in business, vexed with 

 cares and confinement, sigh for the free- 

 dom and independence of the farm. 

 They have sometimes looked upon a 

 cabin, with its smoke curling quietly up 

 towards the heavens, and envied the oc- 

 cupants whom they fancy to be free from 

 care and trouble, and they would almost 

 sacrifice their luxuries for such quiet and 

 like them 



" Keep the noiseless -tenor of Ibeirway." 

 They are apt greatly to over-estimate the 

 profits of farming in the rather limited 

 way that they propose to engage in it, 

 for thej- intend to make it a sort of pas- 

 time. Many have tried the farm to find 

 that they have only fled from one sort of 

 trials to another, and the man of more 

 muscle and more experience may smile 

 at their complaints. 



I take the liberty to extract from pri- 

 vate letters of one who, rather late in 

 life, has left active business engagements 

 for the farm. He says: 



" I have been very busy with my farm 

 work, and, while at work, your remark 

 came forciblj' to my mind that 'a man 

 working at farming has to do more work 

 for a dollar than in any other business.' 

 It is but a few bushels of potatoes that a 

 man can dig in a day, and when dug 

 they cannot be sold at any price at pres- 

 ent. Now I am prepared to say that 

 there is more disappointment in farming 

 than in any other business ou this earthy 

 footstool, and any man who knows 

 enough to lick molasses cfi' a smooth 

 stick had better never engiige in farming. 

 Cain, I believe, was the first farmer, and 

 for his crime divine wrath has rested on 

 farming ever since. 



" In the first place, you have the fowls 

 of the air, the beasts of the field, and 

 all creeping things to destroy your crops. 

 Secondly, you have the elements to con- 

 tend with; if there is too much rain, or 

 too little, your crops will be destroyed; 

 and what seems to be the most provok- 

 ing part of the whole thing is, that while 

 you have been striving against all the 

 above judgments, and your poor crops 

 look withered or decayed, the worthless 

 weeds by their side are green and flour- 

 ishing, holding up their heads with re- 

 joicing. Lastly, and finally, if by any 

 chance you escape any or all of the .above 

 calamities and raise a good crop, then 

 the price is down and you get nothing. 



