1846.] Subsoil Cultivation. 25 



surface soil required, or what was injurious to it, he would be 

 enabled to proceed understandingly. But though subsoiling may 

 not be universally beneficial, or may be occasionally attended by 

 injm-y, as a general principle its utility is admitted. Among the 

 excuses (reasons they are not) why subsoil cultivation is practised 

 by so few, is the expense and want of time to perform those opera- 

 tions thoroughly ; but when it is remembered that autumn is not 

 only the most convenient, but the best season for such operations, 

 I think there are few farmers who could not find a week, or two, 

 previous to the ground being too frozen, that would be more 

 economically and advantageously employed in this way, than 

 doing work that could just as well be done after the ground is 

 frozen, and during winter; there is not a farm in the older por- 

 tions of the country, that has been under cultivation for any num- 

 ber of years,* that one or two weeks of this kind of work in fall, 

 would not prove more profitable than any other in the course of 

 the year, and by perseveringly following it up for a few years, it 

 is astonishing what an amount of good land is made, and the ease 

 with which after cultivation may be pursued, together with the 

 abundant return in shape of good crops, &c. Those portions of 

 the farm intended for spring-planting should be that selected for 

 subsoil cultivation, ground intended for corn, potatoes, ruta-bagas, 

 turnips, carrots, beets, &c. ; it is worse than useless to attempt the 

 cultivation of the four latter, unless the ground is naturally deep, 

 or made so by breaking the subsoil to give depth of surface ; upon 

 this system mainly their success depends, and ground thus prepar- 

 ed in the fall, by manuring and subsoil ploughing, leaving the 

 new surface exposed to the action of the frost, &c., for pulveriza- 

 tion, thereby rendering it more friable for working in the spring, 

 by cross ploughing, scarifying, &c., these crops cannot fail to 

 succeed, and prove useful and profitable on every farm, and no 

 ground can possibly be in better order than ground thus prepared, 

 for wheat, &c., the next fall. 



• Under this system of cultivation the worn-out soils of Virginia and Ma- 

 ryland, may be again restored to fertility. 



Vol. n., No. 1. 3 



