PLOUGHING AND DRAINING. 143 



oxen ; and for very good reasons the swivel or side hill plough 

 should be used, whether our fields are side hill or comparatively 

 level ; by this operation our fields are left without dead furrows, 

 and are made level and in good preparation for the horse 

 mower, which very useful farm implement is fast coming into 

 use. If the field has never before been ploughed more than six 

 inches, it is now the proper time to sink the plough to the depth 

 of seven or more inches, thus giving the surface soil one inch 

 more of depth, which is in effect, adding about one hundred 

 loads of thirty bushels each ; this may be considered sufficient 

 both for the corn crop and for those crops that follow for the 

 next seven, eight, or ten years, as the case may be. 



The use of the subsoil plough, we believe, would prove a val- 

 uable acquisition to many of our fields ; the operation is expen- 

 sive but effectual in the end, as in field drainage ; it requires 

 the same amount of team and the same time to subsoil a field 

 as it does to plough a grass field seven inches deep on our best 

 grain and grass lands — that is, in soils where it can be used ; it 

 serves to loosen the soil to almost any desirable depth, thereby 

 making a pasture ground for the smaller roots to feed upon. 

 It has, heretofore, been the popular doctrine that cereals did not 

 extend only a few inches below the surface. But this theory 

 now being strongly confuted by those that have examined it, it 

 is pretty well conceded that the roots and small fibres extend 

 several feet. Hence, if this theory be true, it is manifest that 

 by loosening and pulverizing the soil to the depth of one and a 

 half feet or more, it will produce a much stronger root and 

 stalk, consequently a greater yield. In case, however, where 

 field drainage is necessary, and the work has not been done, 

 perhaps subsoiling in many.cases would not be effectual, as this 

 treatment would serve to make channels in the subsoil, and 

 cause the stagnant water to remain, or not find so ready passage 

 as it otherwise would have done, and thereby making the soils 

 more pernicious to the plant. 



The more effectual method of preparing the soil for plants, 

 doubtless, is by spading ; but this mode of cultivation is far too 

 expensive to warrant the outlay to a very great extent, except 

 to that class of farmers that have a floating capital and are satis- 

 fied in adopting the principle of sowing dollars and reaping 



