377 



the proper use of this instrument ; and I am happy to record 

 the success which has followed the partial use of it on Mr. 

 Phinney's farm. 



" My potatoe crop this season fully demonstrated to me the 

 great utility of the subsoil plough. Early in June I planted a 

 field of four acres of my hard stony upland with potatoes — 

 half the field with rohan, and half with long red potatoes. 

 The soil a thin vegetable mould upon a gravelly subsoil. The 

 same field I planted a few years ago with potatoes, and owing 

 to the hard crust beneath this thin mould which the roots could 

 not penetrate, the dry weather in August killed the tops and 

 my crop hardly paid the expense of digging. The last spring 

 I spread upon the field ten loads of manure from my hog-styes, 

 being mostly composed of peat mud, to the acre. The drills 

 were made by the common plough, drawn by one horse and 

 followed by the subsoil plough, drawn by two yoke of oxen, 

 which effectually broke the hard crust, and loosened the earth 

 from 12 to 15 inches below the surface, and though the drought 

 was very severe the tops remained perfectly green and thrifty 

 through the season. At harvesting I dug 270 bushels of ro- 

 han from the acre, and 280 of the long red potatoes from each 

 acre. Taking into view the hard dry condition of the land, 

 the light dressing of manure, the almost unprecedented drought 

 and the entire failure of the crop in a former year, I fully believe 

 the crop this year (1841) though but a moderate one, is owing 

 mainly to the use of the subsoil plough. This was made more 

 apparent from the fact that a few short rows at one corner of 

 the field, where the subsoil plough was i?ot used, yielded but 

 about half the quantity produced on an equal space on other 

 parts of the field. 



"The astonishing results of numerous experiments made by 

 farmers in Europe, in subsoil ploughing and under-ground 

 draining, would seem incredible did they not come too well at- 

 tested to admit of a doubt. Most of our farmers have a portion 

 of cold wet land lying at the foot of high lands; having no 

 vegetable deposit, they cannot be called or treated like swamps 



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