ESSAt ON INDIAN CORK. 165 



keep. Mj advice to those who wish for the permanent improvemenfc 

 of their soil is, to plough no more land than thej can manure well, 

 and to plough this an inch deeper each successive year ; by thus 

 mixing the subsoil with the surface soil, both will be improved. I 

 have often thought it strange that so little difference should be made- 

 by the Trustees in ploughing with single and with double teams ; 

 unless it is thought that land ought never to be ploughed more than 

 seven inches deep. If premiums were offered for ploughing five, 

 seven, and nine inches deep, we should have the different sizes of 

 ploughs brought into use, which the farmers need, and it would give 

 the owners of the land where the ploughing matches are held, a good 

 opportunity to see which is best, deep or shallow ploughing. 



On the use of the Subsoil Plough. 



We have not seen that benefit resulting from the use of the Sub- 

 soil Plough which we anticipated, when we procured it, in 1841. 

 We used it for three years, without perceiving any advantage from 

 it. Since then we have not used it ourselves, nor had any opportu- 

 nity to lend it to our neighbors. The cost of subsoiling, I estin^ate 

 to be five dollars per acre. I think that two dollars extra expense 

 in cultivating the crop while growing, will benefit it more than sub- 

 soiling. Most of the land upon which we used this plough was a 

 loamy subsoil ; perhaps some other soil would be helped more by the 

 use of it. 



I have no doubt that the subsoil plough may be advantageously 

 used for some crops ; but for a corn crop, it will not usually pay for 

 the expense. 



My view is this. Lands that are highly manured, will be able to 

 sustain a greater crop, but subsoiling 'does not enrich a poor soil. 

 Our crops of corn do not generally suffer so much for the want of 

 moisture, as for the want of proper food. It would be poor consola- 

 tion to a ship's crew to know that they had water enough, but were 

 out of provisions. The water which the camel carries in his extra 

 stomach would be of little use to him in crossing the desert, if he 

 could not obtain provisions by the way. Until we have well manured 

 and pulverized the surface soil to the depth of ten inches, I think 

 we may as well let the subsoil alone. 



