1878. J TRANSACTIONS. 7 



Mr, Joseph Lovell said Mr. Earle's land has been ploughed very deep 

 for eighteen years ; he had put eighty cords of manure on three acres, 

 and then used phosphate in the hill, on this soil, before Mr. Earle had it. 



Mr. Chamberlain said with fifteen cords of manure to the acre he 

 expected to get double crops for three or four years. He related instances 

 of heavy manuring and deep ploughing, where the deep ploughing had 

 ruined the field. 



Mr. Sears cited instances of deep ploughing, one where four inches of 

 gravel was brought to the surface, and although there was plenty of 

 manure the crop didn't come ; the fault was that the soil wasn't fit to 

 plough deep. In another case, a deep alluvial soil, deep ploughing proved 

 very satisfactory ; it requires discrimination ; a meadow requires different 

 treatment from a shallow soil on a side-hill. In one case he had had good 

 success with ploughing on a stony soil from three to five inches deep, and 

 the land was in good heart fifteen years afterward. 



Mr. F. M. Marble said the question of deep tillage depends on the soil; 

 with a rich subsoil the plough should go deeper every year, but ^s it is 

 brought to the surface, it should be thoroughly incorporated with the top 

 soil, and the whole well manured ; it requires time and manure to utilize 

 deep tillage; plant roots will go as deep as the soil is fitted for them. 



Mr. Hadwen said the question of deep or shallow ploughing cannot be 

 decided by rule; the nature of the soil must govern that. He then sug- 

 gested the application of manures as a part of tillage, and recited various 

 experiments in this department, tending to the idea that the best results 

 came from incorporating the manure through the four or five inches at 

 the top of the soil. 



Mr. Kinney detailed the growth of strawberry plants on hard walks of 

 coal ashes. 



Mr. Newell Wood of Millbury asked if good results from shallow tillage 

 on an old pasture were not owing to the fact that it had been fallow a 

 long time. Mr. Sears, who had cited the instance, said this might be 

 partially so, but he was sure that the crop was not all owing to that cause. 

 He favored a rotation of crops, and said perhaps the ash-walk of Mr. 

 Kinney had been disintegrated by long exposure, and contained nourish- 

 ment for the plant. 



Mr. Thomas Harlow of West Boylston asked for details of Mr. Chamber- 

 . Iain's cultivation, who replied that after ploughing shallow he manured ; 

 then he harrowed twice, and then used a white birch bush just as long as 

 he has time, and then he bushes the field again just before the corn comes 

 up. After the corn is up he puts the cultivator between the rows, both 

 ways ; he relied on the bush as the very best pulverizer. 



Mr. Sears said he did not believe in the bush ; it does not go deep 

 enough ; he prefers twice harrowing with a Fish harrow, and then uses a 

 roller. 



