1846.] Subsoil Cultivation. 23 



measurably greater in the extremely variable climate of the United 

 States. Every person must have observed, who has paid the least 

 attention to the subject, that crops grown on light, friable soils, 

 cultivated in the ordinary way, (say ploughed to the depth of 6 

 inches or less,) which look green and thriving in spring and early 

 summer, seldom or never yield any thing like as good, as crops 

 grown on stiff clay land, which often look thin and weak in 

 spring, but uniformly make the best growth, and the most uniform 

 and abundant crops. It is also the case with subsoiled land, by 

 incorporating the subsoil with the friable surface, it is made stiff 

 and retentive, as well as giving it a double depth of soil for the 

 roots to run into. Why is this so? 



In the first case, the cultivated portion of the soil is so limited, 

 and if manure be applied, it is mixed with so limited a portion of 

 the active soil, that at the first appearance of genial weather 

 in spring, the effects are immediately perceptible, the roots of 

 the plants only ramify through the surface soil; consequently 

 they have but little hold of the ground, from the horizontal di- 

 rection they have taken, and are necessarily placed under the 

 influence of atmospheric changes; thus it is in spring we see seeds 

 and plants prematurely excited into growth, and looking well, 

 until dry weather sets in, when they stand still, the soil and ma- 

 nure in it gets dried up, and becomes inactive, and in wet weather 

 the subsoil being hard, will not receive water, but force it to the 

 surface, carrying with it all the soluble substance within its reach, 

 and the roots having but little hold of the ground, a little wind 

 loosens the plant, and it is blown out; also in spring such plants 

 are more susceptible of injury from being thrown out by frosts.* 

 Whereas in deeply cultivated land, seed sown, at first exerts the 

 whole of its energies in the production of roots which strike 

 deeply into the soil, and when they become excited are prepared 

 for vigorous and luxuriant growth; situated thus, it is obvious that 

 changes of the weather cannot so easily affect them. Thus sub- 



* The above remarks are particularly applicable to seedling trees of all 

 kinds, with which nurserymen are very familiar. Fall-sown wheat, rye, &c., 

 are also very often injured from the above causes. 



