6 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL HOCIETY. [1878. 



row. A roller to mash the clods is often desirable after the soil has been 

 well stirred. He would stir the soil all he could afford, amd quoted an old 

 writer to the effect that soil might be so thoroughly stirred as to almost 

 remove the necessity for manures. He would have earth frequently 

 stirred during the growth of a crop when possible, to prevent packing and 

 crust by sun and rain. 



Mr. James Draper favored deep tillage, and related his experience with 

 sub-soiling ; he first ploughed seven or eight inches, then cross-ploughed 

 the same depth, and then followed in the same furrow with a aub-soil 

 plough, stirring the soil, but not lifting it ; the soil was opened nearly 

 twenty inches, a heavy soil with hard clay subsoil ; he applied forty-five 

 cords of manure to the acre, and had wonderful results, with strawberries 

 for two years, and subsequently with trees. It was eight years ago, but 

 the result is still manifest. 



Mr. F. J. Kinney was called out by a remark that he didn't plough at 

 all ; he said he did not use a plough because he was on a rock where he 

 couldn't plough ; he had seen good fields ruined by deep ploughing, — 

 one a stiff clay soil, twelve inches deep, with four oxen, and since it had 

 not produced enough to feed those four oxen ; it is cold and sour, and 

 will neither grow corn nor grass. He thought much is lost by too deep 

 ploughing ; the work should be on surface in pulverization ; a good seed- 

 bed is the desideratum. The best carrots he ever saw were grown on a 

 hard gravel sub-soil ploughed only four inches deep, and the crop had to 

 be dug with a crow-bar ; he had noticed that the best plants are 

 often found in a hard path which has been trodden for years ; his straw- 

 berry crops have stood the drought best when the soil had been stirred 

 only three or four inches ; the sun and hot air penetrate just as far as 

 the soil is stirred ; below there is a retention of moisture. 



Mr. Wm. H. Earle said it is an important question whether the soil 

 should be stirred deeply or not ; if the last speaker is correct, almost all 

 agricultural experimenters are at fault. He favored frequent stirring of 

 the soil during the growing crop. Another point is that over forty per 

 cent, of a crop comes from above the ground rather than from the ground, 

 but some of this finds its way to the plant through the loosened earth and 

 the roots. 



Mr. Ephraim Chamberlain said various soils need differing methods ; 

 as a rule a man who has a mellow soil will go deep, but with a rocky soil 

 he will plough shallow ; his best experience was with heavy manuring 

 and shallow but very thorough pulverizing ; he had harvested fine crops, 

 just in proportion as he had attended to pulverization. 



Mr. Earle said his strawberry fields were ploughed very deeply, and he 

 got last year $1500 worth of fruit on three acres. He would not spread 

 manure on soil until after it had been thoroughly ploughed. 



