222 OF PLOUGHING. 



the soil. Of this fact there is most satisfactory evidence. 

 Dr Moir of Leckie, in Stirlingshire, had an estate of about 

 1000 Scotch acres, in the Carses, or lower parts of that 

 county, which had been ploughed to the depth of only two 

 inches or two and a half. That small portion of the soil 

 had, accordingly, by continued cultivation, become much 

 pulverized ; whilst the adjacent stratum had, on the other 

 hand, become hardened and compacted by the same pro- 

 cess, so as to become totally impervious to water. The 

 water consequently stagnated between the soil that was 

 held in cultivation, and that which lay immediately be- 

 neath it, as if the latter had been clay or rock. He was 

 accidentally led to try the effect of a double depth, and 

 drains were at the same time constructed, to carry off the 

 superfluous moisture. By these means, the ground has 

 been rendered dry and fertile. The water, which was 

 formerly lodged two and a half inches below the surface, 

 now finds room to diffuse itself, and any superfluous quan- 

 tity is carried off by proper drains. The result also has 

 been, that since this improved mode of cultivation has 

 been introduced, intermittent fevers, which were formerly 



an under stratum that may appear very worthless. As a proof of the uti- 

 lity of deepening surface-soils, both wet and dry bottoms, look at the 

 patches of gardens that have received deep digging, or shallow trench- 

 ing, belonging to the cottages placed on the skirts of the rnuirs all over 

 Scotland, and you will observe the additional verdure and luxuriance of 

 crop upon these patches, more than upon the lands adjoining, the sur- 

 face of which is often very little more than scratched by the plough, and 

 the dung and other manure applied to it has no deepness of soil to ope- 

 rate upon, so as to produce a good crop." It is to be observed, how- 

 ever, that the quantity of dung usually applied to patches of garden 

 ground, so far exceeds what any farmer can afford to give his corn fields, 

 particularly in a muirland district, that the comparison here adduced, 

 cannot, in that respect, be relied on. 



