56 



^i)t iTarmcr's ilTcmll)li) Visitor. 



leaving alternate strips not subsoiled, all feeing 

 manured alike. He ran the subsoiler about eiglit 

 to ten indies deep. The season proved very dry 

 and where the subsoil plough was not used, the 

 corn was so burnt up that il produced little or 

 nothing; but where the subsoil plough was used, 

 the corn remained green and flourishing through 

 all the drought ; the strips were plainly seen at 

 n distance, and the subsoiled pnrt produced a 

 good crop. Mr. B. made a similar experiment 

 on carrots, and the results were even more stri- 

 kingly in favor of subsoiling tlianiu the case first 

 cited. These experiments, as wdl as those de 



tailed below, were made on mat 



ured land, hut 



the manure having been equally applied to all 

 the land, it does not vary the case hut they go to 

 jirove conclusively, thai tlieincreise of product 

 wasclearly the resultof subsoilind Again{saine 

 Vol. 3, p. 215, by the Editor :) " The advantages 

 of subsoil ploughing are no doubt greater on 

 soils having a close, hard pan subsoil than on 

 those of a loose and open nature, In the En- 

 glish Agricultural Gazette, we find an account of 

 some experiments, a brief sketch of which may 

 afford interest : 



" J. A field of thirteen acres, ' jartly heavy on 

 a dry sul>soil, and partly dry, an > gravelly sub- 

 soil,' was subsoiled to the depth o(" seven or eight 

 inches, the subsoil plough being preceded by a 

 common plough which worked sx to seven in- 

 ches deep. The field had heen-'/aughed many 

 years, and a hard crust (pan) was formed which 

 was in many places almost iinpeietrable to wa- 

 ter. Two acres only were left piDughed in the 

 usual waj'. The whole of the field was equally 

 manured and sown with yellow turnips. The 

 appearance of the crop was similar till August, 

 when that portion of it on subsoiled land took 

 the lcaJ,and ot harvest gave 20 tins 17cwt. per 

 nrre, while the part ploughed in tl* old way gave 

 only 20 tons 7 cwt. per acre. 



"2. The second experiment wns made on a 

 deep soil inclining to sand, on a subsoil of sandy 

 clay. Two acres were subsoiled 15 inches deep, 

 two were ploughed 6 or 7 inches, and two ridges 

 were trench ploughed 13 inches deep. The 

 whole was planted in potatoes, and sidijected to 

 the same treatment as to manure and culture. — 

 The subsoiled yielded 7 tons and 9 cwt., 2 qrs.; 

 trenched 7 tons, 1 cwt., 2 qrs.; ploughed 6 tons, 

 14 cwt., 1 qr. 



"3. Tiie potato crop was fbllowed by barley. 

 Ti)e subsoiled part kept the lead throughout, and 

 at' fnj'^vest gave 8 qrs., 3 bushels barley, and 36i 

 cwt. of sti'.'.'*^ ''•='■ •■"='"•'! llie ploughed part 7 qrs. 

 4 bushels, 3 pejfe" -"•l^'^y'.JlJ.'.'^ ?S (cwt, straw per 

 acre." "" '" , 



It is also stated in Vol. ], above q<JOted from, 

 page 85, that, " At a late meetii.d: of «lie Corn- 

 wall Agricultural Association, Mr- T^''^ s'n'e'' 

 that he had practiced subsoil ploti-!?liing for four 

 years, and that all his crops had bei'fin greatly ben- 

 efitted. His carrots had doubled i)n quantity, his 

 turnips had greatly increased, liis imangold wurt- 

 Tel had nearly doubled." 



Frequent experiments made by one of your 

 committee, at first litnited, but foir the last two 

 years on a more extensive scale, have made the 

 most decidedly favorable impression on lii.t mind 

 m regard to subsoiling, and more especially on 

 i)ld and greatly exhausted land: and though he 

 'las made no comparative experinrp'l!?. sudl us 

 those quoted, as made by Mr. Uent/jnt and others, 

 yet he feels well assured of the fiict, that the in- 

 nrease of corn on suhsoiled land has\been from thir- 

 ty-three lo fifty }icr cent, over and aKove what the 

 same land would have produced, prepared in the 

 usual way. With these remarks on their own 

 experience in subsoiling, yoiir committee will 

 close this subject. 



REMARKS BY TIIE EDITOR OF TIIE VISITOR. 



The editor of the Visitor tried subsoiling for 

 he first time four years ago ; and so well satisfied 

 iias he been with its utility, that in the prepara- 

 tion for planting sixteen acres tho present spring 

 he had an especial additional team to his own 

 with two heavy yokes of oxen, to plough his land 

 Iwice in the same furrow. 



The lan<l he has subsoiled for cultivation is the 

 land without a hard pan — land that had been cul- 

 tivated for a hundred years and never ploughed. 



until he begun upon it, over six inches deep.— r 

 Tbe first was a lot of light intervale measuring 

 about five acres. The year before it was sub- 

 soiled, laid down a few years to grass, the five 

 acres did not produce two tons of hay. The first 

 year of ploughing, in the spring about twenty- 

 five ox-cart loads of weak composted manure 

 from muck and lime mixed with stable manure 

 and other ingredients, were laid in heafis and 

 spread over the grass. A lighter team, striking 

 down about eight inches, with a Prouly jilough 

 turned over the surface — following this, a heavier 

 team with a Prouty subsoil plough (one of ilie 

 first made by that ingenious improver of ploughs) 

 followed the first plough, raising from six to eight 

 inchesof that soil never yet stirred by the plough. 

 Strips of a few feet wide with the first plough, 

 were left the whole length of the field. The land 

 was all well turned over. Potatoes were planted 

 in the open line between every third furrow ; 

 these from having in some instances been plant- 

 ed to the whole depth of the upper furrow, were 

 a long time coming up ; but a good crop was 

 raised the first year. The second year was suc- 

 ceeded by Indian corn, which, although it come 

 up badly and missing blades supplied with beans, 

 produced mere than fifty bushels of shelled corn 

 to the acre, besides from six to ten bushels of 

 beans. The growth was a perfect swamp : the 

 manitre.was about the same quantity of compost 

 of lime, muck and yard manure as the first, spread 

 and lightly ploughed in. The third year, with a 

 like application of manure, was an excellent crop 

 of potatoes, showing as between the rows of the 

 subsoiled and unsuhsoiled parts, a difference in 

 size and growth of from one third to one-half 

 The fciurth season, which was the last year, the 

 potato vines and weeds were raked off— the land 

 took one slight ploughing, and early in May nine 

 and a half bushels of oats were sown over the 

 five acres. The difference in the height of these 

 on the subsoiled from tbe nnsubsoiled strip, might 

 be distinctly seen looking over the field for the 

 distance of fifty to a hundred rods ; and we cal- 

 culate the gain of crops of potatoes and oats, ev- 

 idently more increased in the two last than in the 

 two first years from the time of subsoiling, to 

 have been at least one-third in both years. Now 

 the clover and herdsgrass are beautifully set up- 

 on this same ground, and we should be willing to 

 warrant upon the five acres over two tons of best 

 hay to the acre with no application of manures 

 tor the next three years; and wo will likewise 

 warrant that the nnsubsoiled strips will show a 

 crop of hay one-third lessthan the deeply plough- 

 ed land. 



The reason of the increased production of the 

 two last over the two first years of this subsoiled 

 ^and, we arc satisfied ourselves to be in the fact 

 that the mineral qualities, inert on tho first stir- 

 ring of the soil, assisted after such exposure in 

 furnishing the aliment for vegetation always 

 aliuiidaut in all newly opened hiiuls. Not only 

 does the deeper ploughing present a greater field 

 fur vegetable roots, drawing by capillary attrac- 

 tion more moisture in drought and carrying off 

 the redundant water when the ground is too 

 much saturated, but kttent virtues which exist 

 more or less in Ihc marly substances of all un- 

 stirred subsoil are brought into action by the con- 

 traction and expansion of tho cold and heat. — 

 Kven in dry gravel or sandy lands the exposure 

 operates like yeast in a measure of meal, and tho 

 whole stirred up mass becomes a deepencil ac- 

 tive upper surface mould after the action of the 

 roots of repeated annual vegetation among it. 



The grand operation of our first experiment of 

 subsoiling Upon the intervale in the second crop, 

 induced us to try the same exjierimeut in a field 

 of about six acres more. Both lots were in the 

 same enclosure-: the first was more elevated and 

 the alluvial deposile was more sandy than the 

 last. Portions of our intervale are made by the 

 washing of the river directly over it — these are 

 often sandy and light. Other portions are form- 

 ed from the sediment left of overflowing waters 

 soaking in— these for the most part, at first fer- 

 tile, become in tbe course of time heavy clayey 

 soiK The two lots subsoiled were of the differ- 

 ent kinds. The last was black and heavy land : 

 it had been ploughed deep and planted with corn 

 one year. The effect of the subsoiling seemed 

 to be the raising iqi the whole surface of the 

 field fidi four inches, lightening and enlivening 

 the soil and changing its color from almost black 

 to brown yellow. 



So well pleased have we been with all our deep 

 ploughing — the double depth with the subsoil 

 plough being best of all — that our planting 

 ground of sixteen acres for the present year, done 

 with two teams in about twelve days just before 

 the freezing of last November, has been prepar- 

 ed at an additional expense of a heavier team 

 with the subsoil i)lough followiiis after the team 

 of the breaking-up cattle, with the cost of about 

 forty dollars. These forty dollars, we do not 

 doubt, will be returned by this land in each an- 

 nual successive crop for lh» next five years at 

 least. Six acres of this land is sandy, light inter- 

 vale, upon the bank of the Blerrimack river: ten 

 acres is pine plain land, a |iart of it made the 

 last year before subsoiling to produce an unusual 

 crop of Indian corn, and the other part a clover 

 ley mowed last year and turned under with n 

 second growth in the blow. The effect of dep|» 

 ploughing and cultivation upon this light plain 

 land wilhout much manuring, has been very ex- 

 traordinary : the light silicious soil, so 0|)en as 

 seemingly to let off every feeding aliment, has 

 become more compact, and changed into a dark- 

 er color; and now that the ground has been stir- 

 red to the depth of fourteen or sixteen inches, the 

 whole lield treads as upon a garden bed. 



for the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, 

 [or RE'quEST.] 

 I consider the Farmer's Monthly Visitor, edit- 

 ed by Isaac Hill & Sons, the hvuX. .Igricullurcd 

 paper within my knowledges If a copy of I he 

 paper could be put in the hands of every Fariii- 

 or in the United States, and he properly appreci- 

 ate the worth of it, it never would ho disconliii- 

 ned so long as it sustains its present cliarnrter. 



P. U. I". 

 Chaplin, Ct., .Ipri! 0, 18-17. 



Anecoote or the Horsk. — Attachment to 

 Man. — In siibniissinti and atlaclimc iil ici man, the 

 horse is eriualb'd only by the dog and elephant. 

 He soon Icarus to dit^linguish his muster's voice, 

 and to come at his call; he rejoices in bis pres- 

 ence, and seems resilessand uidiappy during bis 

 absence ; he joins wiih him willingly in any work, 

 and appears su.-^cepiilileJif cmuhiliuu ami rivalry ; 

 and though frrcpiciilly fierce and daugeruus to 

 strangers, yt^t there tuo few in.sumces on record 

 of his being failhlcss to those with whom he is 

 domcstioaled, tuiless tinder the most iiihiiniaii 

 and baibarous'tre.-.lment. Colonel Smilh relates 

 the following ailVcliiig incident of lUlac-hinriil iu 

 a charger, which bidougcd to (loiicial Sir.Kobfrt 

 (lillespic. When Sir Itobcrt fell at tl^e storming 

 of Kaluiiga, his tiivoi itc black charger, bred at 

 the Capo of (iood Hope, and carried by him to, 

 India, was, at the sale of his effects, competed 

 for by several oflicers of his division, and finally 

 knocked down to the privates of the eighth dra- 

 goons, who contributed their prize money to the 

 ainouul of £500 sterling, to retain this comniein- 



