STIRRING THE SOIL. 1T7 



A Member, What could we do with asparagus, in the culti- 

 vation of which our people engage so largely, if we did not 

 have deep soil ? 



Mr. Brown. If you want to deepen your soil, stir it, as Mr. 

 Thatcher says he did. That is the true principle, in my opinion. 

 Then your plants have an opportunity to run down in search of 

 moisture, and there is an opportunity for the water to pass 

 away. Do that gradually, and instead of deep ploughing hurt- 

 ing the soil, my opinion is, you may plough it twelve inches and 

 keep tilling it for several years, and you need not add a particle 

 of manure ; the heavens will make it into good soil ; from slate 

 color it will become, in the course of a few years, as black as 

 your hat, only let it have access to the heat of the sun. What 

 we want to do is to harmonize these things, so that what is done 

 in various parts of the State will all be applicable to the work 

 in hand ; so that we shall not be at work, as half of us are, 

 without any result, losing our time and money. The business 

 is a most intricate one, requiring all the skill and .patience and 

 industry we can command ; and it is the most exalted labor, 

 too, that man ever engaged in. I am delighted to find this 

 Board going al)out the State and calling the people together to 

 discuss tlicse important questions ; and I feel ashamed that our 

 people in this town do not appreciate it more, and come here to 

 take part in your deliberations. 



Mr. Watkins. I should like to ask my friend Mr. Smith how 

 he spoiled his land by subsoiling it, as he mentioned yesterday 

 afternoon ? I would like to get these points together, so as to 

 harmonize them, if possible, as Mr. Brown suggests. 



Mr. Smith. I have been an interested listener to the discus- 

 sion upon this subject ever since it commenced, and I had come 

 to this conclusion in regard to the matter, which has been 

 expressed by two or three of the last speakers, and thought it 

 entirely unnecessary for anything more to be said : that it 

 depends altogether upon circumstances — upon the nature of the 

 soil, upon the weather, and the plants which we wish to put 

 upon that soil. Although we may not agree upon the topics on 

 which we speak, it makes no difference. It will not be expected 

 that we shall agree in all tilings, coming as we do from all parts 

 of the State. With the different soils we cultivate — with the 

 different crops we raise — it is not to bo expected that we shall 



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