comes to agitate the bosom of the peacefnl 

 Ocean. 



On concludmg, for the reasons given in the 

 Memoir of Gen. Van Rensselaer, that it would 

 be even more imperatively just than politic to 

 record in the Fanner's Library what we could 

 yet recover of tlie benefactions of departed 

 friends to American Agi-iculture, our first 

 thought and endeavor was to get a portrait and 

 appropriate notice of the Author of Arator. 



Although so far disappointed, we do not yet 

 despair of some success. 



We are aware, as to deep plowing, that 

 some regard is to be had in tlie first instance to 

 the depth of the top soil. Early opportunity 

 will be taken to present the subject in all its as- 

 pects, as it has been exolained and illustrated 

 by Johnson and others in Europe and in Amer- 

 ica. Our pui-pose for the moment is only to 

 give the following, the perusal of which sug- 

 gested the foregoing hasty remarks : — 



Account of an Experiment in Deep Plowing. 



BY EEV. JOHN JAFFKAT, DUNBAK, EAST LOTHIAN. 



[Premium, Five Sovereigns.] 

 The experiment was made upon a small field, 

 •which is sixty-five feet above the level of the 

 sea. The soil is sandy, resting upon a subsoil 

 of sand and gravel of great depth, and so thor- 

 oughly drained by the declivity of the surround- 

 ing lands, that want of moisture is its natural 

 defect. There is but little dilference between 

 the soil and the stratum on which it rests beyond 

 what culture and manure have made ; but, from 

 sinking of gravel, treading of horses, and pres- 

 sm-e of the plow, year after year, and age after 

 age, the subsoil had become crusted, hard, and 

 beaten as a road. In short, from shallow plow- 

 ing, there was but little depth of cultivated 

 earth; and, as on all such soils in dry seasons, 

 the crop was scorched and scanty. 



With a view to render this field fruitful in 

 any season, it v^as subsoiled ■with the Dean.ston 

 plow, eighteen inches deep, and sown with 

 wheat for crop 1837. The great vigor and lux- 

 uriance of the crop attracted general notice ; 

 and it must have yielded an extraordinary in- 

 crease, if it had not been lodged by wind and 

 rain shortly after the ear appeared. Therefore 

 it gave only tkirty-eight bushels of grain per 

 acre, but three tons of stra\v, which proved its 

 great strength. To this crop, one of potatoes 

 and two of vv'heat succeeded ; but it is the cul- 

 ture of this field for crop 1841, and the result, 

 which chiefly constitute this report. 



It was all equally dressed with seaware ; and 

 four acres of the same quality and description 

 were measured and staked off: Two of these 

 acres were plo^ved twelve inches deep -with 

 two horses, and two of them eighteen inches 

 deep, with four horses. These two portions in 

 all other respects were cultivated and managed 

 exactly alike. They ■were planted with pota- 

 toes of the Don species in the last week of April, 

 eight inches deep, twelve inches asunder, and 

 in drills thirty inches wide, running at right an- 

 gli's to the furrows of the experimental plow- 

 in?. The potatoes were planted deeper than 

 usual, therefore the shoots were longer in com- 

 ing through the ground ; but, when tliey did 

 (•■56) 



appear, it was witli great strength and regular- 

 ity. They expanded their broad deep-green 

 leaves, and grew vigorously, in the dry sandy 

 soil, in a very severe and long-contmued drouth. 

 It was soon evident that the deepest plowed 

 portion had the advantage ; the stems and 

 branches of its plants were stronger, and they 

 first covered the ground. 



The potatoes were lifted in the last w^eek 

 of October, when it was found that the land 

 plowed twelve inches deep produced fifty-seven 

 bolls per acre, and the land plowed eighteen 

 inches deep produced sixty-nine bolls per acre, 

 being a difference of twelve bolls per imperial 

 acre, of four cwt. to the boll. 



It is a condition annexed to the premium of- 

 fered by the Highland and Agricultural Society 

 for experiments in deep plowing, that one-half 

 of the land used " shall be cultivated in the or- 

 dinary way." By evidence before the Agricul- 

 tural Committee m 183(3, the depth of plowing 

 in this country is from six to nine inches. If that 

 depth had been taken for the lowest extreme in 

 this experiment, the difference in the production 

 of the two portions, it is believed, would have 

 been greater ; but as this field had been plowed 

 twelve inches deep for years, its ordinary depth 

 was adhered to, and the difference is certainly 

 sufficient to estabUsh the advantage of deep 

 plowing. 



As to the quality, it is excellent for the season 

 from both portions of the land, and in that re- 

 spect there is no difference. The potatoes from 

 the deep tillage were larger, more of one size, 

 had fewer small ones, and not so many of a 

 green color as those from the other division. 



The quantity on the deep tillage is eighty- 

 seven bolls per Scots acre, which is a good crop 

 for any year ; and it will readily be granted that 

 it is far above the average of the district this 

 year, many fields not producing half a crop. — 

 A superiority so striking must, therefore, be 

 ascribed to deep culture, being on bolii portions 

 deeper than ordinary, which furnished moisture 

 in a verj' dry and scorching season to a sandy 

 soil, and raised its produce above that of richer 

 lands. But though this is a great crop for the 

 season, it must have been still greater if the field 

 had been less exposed, as it has no shelter ; and 

 three days of very \'iolent wind in the first ■week 

 of August broke down the plants, which, from 

 their great luxuriance, were then very tender, 

 and checked their growth. 



The practical conclusions to be dra^wni from 

 this experiment are — 



First, That deep plowing increases the pro- 

 duce. 



Next, Thpt, as both portions of the land used 

 in the experiment %vere opened up eighteen 

 inches deep by the subsoil plow for crop 1837, 

 the full benefit of that operation is not obtained 

 till the earth so loosened is again plowed up. 

 And the reason is evident ; for it is then only 

 that the soil is deepened, by an addition from 

 the subsoil with ■which it is intermixed, and ren- 

 dered more fruitful. 



LasfJi/, If deep plowing increases the pro- 

 duce, it increases also the supply of vegetable 

 manure ; and a greater portion of manure, added 

 to improved culture, must produce a progres- 

 sive increase of fertility and of produce. 



This experiment ■was begun on the glebe of 

 Dunbar for the amusement of the reporter, and 

 before he knew that any premium ujion the 

 subject was offered by the Highland and Agri- 

 cultural Society. 



