SUBSOILING HURTFUL WITHOUT DRAINAGE. 139 



shallow a manner to admit of subsoiling. Experi- 

 ence has shown that subsoiling without previous 

 draining is injurious. On undrained lands the open 

 furrows act as drains to the disturbed soil ; but 

 when the subsoil is broken up below, these furrows, 

 having no subterranean escape for water, become 

 after rains a puddled mass, into which the horses' 

 feet force the upper soil, very much to its injury. 

 In fact, it is a great impediment to cultivation, and 

 is hurtful to the crops, and therefore drainage must 

 precede subsoiling. 



" There are many reasons why a disturbance of 

 the subsoil may be profitable where deep ploughing 

 or diooinor would be ruinous. Let us beware 

 against hurying our surface-soil, which has so long 

 been cultivated and manured ; if we do this, and 

 bring to the surface a bad, stagnated, undecomposed 

 subsoil, we shall feel its ill effects for years. I 

 speak practically in this matter ; for wherever the 

 yellow, soapy subsoil of the new ditches has been 

 spread on the surface, it makes a miserable seed-bed, 

 and is difficult to work. Let us keep the surface- 

 soil where it is, for in breaking up the subsoil quite 

 enough of it will become mixed with the upper. 

 As the solutions of lime and manure, as well as 

 atmospheric influences, gradually ameliorate the 

 condition of the under soil, we can year by year 

 gain one inch by deeper ploughing; remembering, 

 however, that this will be a hundred tons of new 



