CIRCUMSTANCES ALTER CASES. 169 



ploughed so deep. Now, to plough ten inches is enormously 

 deep — it is certainly three or four inches beyond what is termed 

 deep ploughing. I have no doubt in my own mind tliat if we 

 should plough our ground by measurement ten inches deep, we 

 should suffer exceedingly from it. I should call six or seven 

 inches deep plougliing, and if I should go three inches beyond 

 that, I should expect to suffer exceedingly from it. The char- 

 acter of the season makes a difference in this respect. If the 

 season is dry, and we plough shallow, we shall suffer very much 

 quicker than if we ploughed deeper. 



Mr. Cole. If six inches is deep ploughing, I would like to 

 have Mr. Hubbard define shallow ploughing. 



Mr. Hubbard. Six or seven inches I said. I must say, that 

 I should consider nine and ten inches enormously deep. 



Mr. BiRNiE. I question if we have many places that will bear 

 ploughing ten inches deep. I know one of our most successful 

 farmers,, located on a sandy plain, who puts his plough right 

 down to the beam, and it is an extraordinary plough. He 

 cultivates one part of his land as a market garden. His argu- 

 ment is, that the land retains the moisture, and he has never 

 any fear that his crop will suffer in a dry season, and he gets 

 tremendous crops. But my experience, on my land, would 

 be like Mr. Johnson's ; so that it is very evident that circum- 

 stances must control this matter. We cannot lay down a rule, 

 for all parts of the State, that a certain depth of ploughing is 

 necessary ; we must be governed by circumstances. 



Mr. Johnson. In regard to the team I used, I will say, that 

 at that time, I had been taking out the stones from some low 

 ground, and it required a pretty heavy team. I kept six heavy 

 oxen at work upon that land, and I cleared it pretty much of 

 stone. I put four of these oxen on a large grass plough, and 

 all my endeavor was to keep the end of the beam out of the 

 ground, I wouldn't be surprised if I ploughed some as deep as 

 twelve inches. It Avent very deep, and it did not turn the 

 furrow over entirely, but it laid up, and some was rolled over. 

 It was a coarse piece of ploughing. I let out a piece of this 

 ground to be planted. The man was a firm believer in deep 

 ploughing, but I persuaded him not to plough too deep. He 

 ploughed that ground, I should judge, about eight inches deep, 

 and planted it with a crop of potatoes, and there was not a 



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