22 Subsoil Cultivation. [Jan., 



nic acid of the peat is the cause of preservation. If the latter 

 cause were the true one, we might expect to find the bones im- 

 bedded in the peat in a better state of preservation than those in 

 the marl. Such, however, is not the fact. Those found in the 

 peat are always the most decayed. All these remains of the 

 mastodon in the United States, we believe, are found in these 

 recent, fresh-water deposits, and never in connection with the 

 diluvial deposite. We have seen but one specimen that was 

 fossilized. This was a portion of a lower jaw in the cabinet of 

 Yale College, and was evidently altered by this process. 



ON THE IMPORTANCE OF DEEP AND SUBSOIL 

 CULTIVATION. 



BY A. SAUL, NEWBUKGH. 



Nearly all cultivators of the soil agree, and acknowledge, that 

 deep cultivation, by either spade or plough husbandry, is among 

 the most important operations of Agriculture and Horticulture; 

 indeed it may be considered the basis on which the success of all 

 other operations depend, (presuming, however, in the first place, 

 that the land is either naturally or artificially drained, in all cases, 

 for unless excess of water be carried off, all other improvements 

 will be ineffectual,) and while all, or nearly all, admit its impor- 

 tance, a firm conviction that it is not so generally or extensively 

 put in practice, as it deserves to be, is the only apology I offer to 

 the readers of the American Quarterly Journal, &c., for trespass- 

 ing on their attention. In all countries where the various modes 

 of deep cultivation have been most extensively practised, by 

 trenching, subsoil ploughing, and deep ploughing with improved 

 implements, their advantages have been signally successful ; in- 

 deed, perhaps to this cause alone, more than any other, is the suc- 

 cess and superiority of British farming to be attributed. And 

 while its advantages are so manifest, in the humid and compara- 

 tively less varied climate of Great Britain, they doubtless are ira- 



