OF PLOUGHING. 



It is another important advantage resulting from deep 

 ploughing, that it has a material effect in improving the 

 climate of any district, where too much moisture may 

 abound, which would be retained by the imperviousness of 



that it is easier to keep it clean of root-weeds ; nay, some imagine that 

 the pan, as it is called, retains moisture, though it is evident that a thin 

 soil must soon have all the moisture in it much more speedily evapora- 

 ted than a deep one. Mr Church has heard the farmers in that county 

 say, that the land was always injured when the pan, or top of the subsoil, 

 was broken by deep ploughing, which was never done but by a careless 

 or bad ploughman. There may be some ground for their partiality in 

 favour of their mode of ploughing thin and light soils; and it would not 

 be advisable for them to alter their system, unless they fallowed their 

 lands, gradually deepened them, and limed and dunged the new soil. 

 But if on these principles they were to increase the depth and quantity 

 of the surface soil, their crops would be more certain and abundant, 

 more especially in dry seasons. The following valuable hints on this 

 subject, are drawn up by one of the most intelligent farmers in Scotland, 

 whose name, if he had permitted me to use it, would have done credit 

 to any publication. 



" After shallow ploughing, the crop, in heavy rains, is very apt to be 

 soaked about the roots, in consequence of which the straw is whitened 

 prematurely, and the grain does not come to perfection ; hence the ne- 

 cessity, when the surface is thin, of thickening it by deep ploughing. I 

 have seen deep ploughing this kind of land, for the first, and even the 

 second year, after ploughing up the under-soil, produce a teazing crop 

 of thistles, which was hurtful to the corn crop; but after the cold soil is 

 well mixed with the old surface-soil, and after the lime and dung applied 

 to it, when summer-fallowed, has begun to operate on the new soil, I have 

 found great benefit from this operation ; but it is the winter-furrow before 

 the summer-fallow that should be ploughed deep ; the lime and dung ap- 

 plied to the fallow, as I have already mentioned, operate strongly on the 

 fresh soil. I would recommend ploughing even light lands, although 

 thin, to a proper depth, though gravel or stones may be turned up and 

 mixed with the surface-soil. I have found no inconveniency by it. Both 

 turnips and corn crops, as well as pasture grass, stand out better, both 

 in wet and dry seasons, when a shallow surface-soil is deepened, even by 



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