^m'm m: 





AND HORTICULTUIiAL REGISTER. 



PUl!LISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agriculturai. Warehoose.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



VOL. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY, 3 1841. 



[NO. 31. 



N. E. FARMER. 



The English Afjricultural journals for tlie last 

 few years, liave contained many articles upon the 

 practice of subsoil ploughing. Our readers, wo 

 suppose, understand this to be the use of a plough 

 having a narrow double share, or a small share on 

 each side of the coulter and no mould-board. It is 

 used in each furrow after the common plough, and 

 breaks up and stirs the sub. soil to the depth of 

 several inches, without bringing it up and incorpo- 

 rating it with the soil. Many farmers in England 

 have derived great advantages from this process, 

 in connection with under-draining. Others have 

 found it waste labor. The January No. of the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society ol Eng- 

 land contains a communication upon tliis subject 

 by H. S. 1 liompson, Esq., parts of which we ex- 

 tract below 



Heretofore wo have received the impression that 

 our transatlantic co-workers deejned this ])riicess 

 peculiarly suited to stiff ami heavy soils, consisting 

 mostly of compact, adhesive clays. They now be- 

 gin to intimate that shallow soils of the lighter 

 kinds may be quite as susceptible of improvement 

 under this process as -any others. We have often 

 conjectured that it must be thus; and have sup- 

 posed that many of our shallow, gravelly and sandy 

 soils in New England would b.e rendered more re- 

 tentive of moisture and more fertile by simply sub- 

 soiling without under-draining. Some of the 

 observed facts, leading to the supposition are, that 

 we have seen apple trees growing bettor in gravel 

 that had been moved, than iu the deepest and rich- 

 e-Jt mould ; that grass, on a narrow strip where the 

 subsoil had been thrown out and replaced when 

 putting down the logs of an aqueduct, was much 

 more abumlunt than on the adjoining portions of 

 the field ; that an immense — a mammoth squash 

 had grown upon an uimianured gravel heap that 

 had been formed when digging a well. The loos- 

 ening of the sub-soil, making it more pervious to 

 air and water — bringing many particles into con- 

 tact with particles that have not touched them be- 

 fore, and thus perhaps prouioting slight fermenta- 

 tions and nfw chemical combinations, may fit the 

 subsoil to attract, receive and nourish the roots of 

 plants. Can our practical men give us any usef\il 

 facts or observations upon this subject .-' The mat- 

 ter is worthy of attention. 



ON SUBSOIL PLOUGHING. 



BV H. S. IHOMPSO.N, K.SQ. 



Public opinion is still much divided on the sub- 

 ject of subsoil ploughing. Some very eminent 

 fanners maintain that it is lost labor; while others, 

 equally enunent, think no system of husbandry 

 complete without it. When men of sense and ex- 

 perience differ respecting matters of fact which 

 have come under their own observation, it will 

 general'y be found that, like the travellers disput- 

 ing about the color of a chameleon, neither would 

 be wrong if he would only allow his opponent to 

 be right. To take a case in point: — one farmer of 

 my acquaintance, drained deep and used the sub- 



soil plough with every precaution and care, yet 

 found it fail; another, following precisely the same 

 plan, permanently improved the texture of the soil : 

 both were anxious that their friends should profit 

 by cither the example or the warning, and lost no 

 opportunity of making the result public. For want 

 of a better term, both experiments were said to 

 have been made on stiff soil.^: both are credible 

 men ; and the naturi'l result of such conflicting 

 testimonies is, that the question remains undecided. 

 Here we feel the want of some acknowledged 

 classification of soils, founded on chemical analy- 

 sis. No two witnesses could be more directly at 

 issue than those alluded to above: and very possi- 

 bly, both one and the other may have been quoted 

 by the supporters or opposers of the subsoil plough 

 as triumphantly establishing their position. The 

 moment, however, that the two experiments are 

 referred to their place in the geological map, the 

 whole difficulty vanishes. One was made in a 

 stifl" marly clay, on the new red sandstone forma- 

 tion ; the other on that most tenacious of all soils, 

 the lias clay : the one was permanently improved ; 

 the other ran together again almost as .-.oon as done. 



It would be but waste of time to give any addi- 

 tional proofiif what has already been fully estab- 

 lished, viz: that on some soils the subsoil plough 

 has been eminently useful ; that on others ij; has 

 signally failed. The grand desideratum, at present, 

 is the discovery of some test which shall enable 

 us, on the examination of any given soil, to pro- 

 nounce tolerably confidently that it would be advi- 

 sable or useless to subsoil it. I feel fully persuad- 

 ed that the per centage of alumina, or pure clay, in 

 any soil, furnishes the required criterion. In the 

 two instances quoted above, I procured an analysis 

 of the soils, and found that, iu ihe one on which 

 subsoilmg was of no use, the proportion of alumina 

 was twice as great as in the other : this most un- 

 expected result first suggested the rule above sta- 

 ted ; and in all the cases which I have since had 

 an opportunity of examining, it has been fully con- 

 firmed. A rule of this kind can only be established 

 by numerous sxperiments on various soils; but if 

 those gentlemen who are anxious to promote agri- 

 cultural improvement, would kindly forward to the 

 secretary of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society the 

 result of their own experiments with the subsoil 

 plough, accompanied by either an analysis of the 

 subsoil on which it was tried, or even a specimen 

 of the subsoil for aualysis, the question of subsoil 

 ploughing would very soon.be set at rest; and it 

 would be as easy to point out the soils which would 

 be benefited by it, as it is now to distingush turnip 

 and barley soils from those adipted for wheat and 

 beans. 



I will now state the steps taken to test the truth 

 of the rule above mentioned, viz: that the percent- 

 age of alumina ough'. to guide us in the selection 

 of soils for siibsoiling. I wrote to several gentle- 

 men whom I knew to have used the subsoil plough, 

 and oil whose accuracy I could rely, and begged 

 that they would furnish mo with some account of 

 their experiments, and send me a specimen of the 

 subsoil for analysis. I have, wlierever practicable. 



given the account in the words of the writer; and 

 can only regret that the shortness of the time has 

 prevented my collecting more evidence on the sub- 

 ject. The following essay was sent me by that 

 very intelligent farmer, Mr Black, land-agent to 

 the Earl of Zetland, at Marske, in Cleveland. 



"There is probably no agricultural operation 

 that has been so strongly recommended by some, 

 and so much censured by others, as subsoil plough- 

 ing. Its advocates have represented it as the 

 great panacea for all soils and situations; and its 

 intioduetion, they s;iy, will form a new epoch in 

 agriculture. Believing that neither party have 

 viewed the subject properly in all its bearings, I 

 beg leave humbly to offer a few remarks, first, on 

 the soil that will receive the most permanent im 

 provement from subsoil ploughing; and, second 

 where it can be of no utility. The soil that I he 

 Move will receive the most permanent improvement 

 from subsoil ploughing is luie in which silica pre- 

 dominates ; indeed all shallow soils, of the lighter 

 kinds, will be improved by it; and particularly sj 

 if there is any moorland pan, or indurated incrus 

 tations, ftu'ined by the weight of the plough going 

 for a number of years at the same depth, or from 

 other causes. If the subsoil is of good quality, 

 and a greater depth of furrow is wished for, the 

 subsoil plough may be used with advantage ; the 

 percolation of water prepares the subsoil for amal- 

 gamation with the surface. Strong clayey land 

 cannot be permanently improved by subsoil plougli 

 ing. Alumina is a tenacious, compact, adhesive 

 substance; its parts are in minute divisions, and 

 have great affinity lor each other. In September, 

 18.38, I subsoiled two fields of 10 acres each, which 

 had been previously drained, and as the nomencla- 

 tvre of soils is not at all intelligible, and has led 

 to much mischief in detailing experiments, I send 

 you the analysis of 300 grains of the field since 

 ploughed. 



300 grains consisted of — 



Grains. 

 Moisture, 61 



Soluble matter, principally vegetable, 3 

 Lime, in the state of carbonate, 2 



Peroxide of iron, .TO 



Alumina, 1.30 



Silica, or fine land, 20 



Vegetable matter, 33 



Loss, 1 



300 



" One of these subsoiled fields produced 3.1, and 

 tlie other 27 1-2 bushels of wheat per acre ; the 

 Bold that produced the greatest number of quarters 

 per acre was subsoiled across the drains; the oth- 

 er parallel with them. I do not attribute tins great 

 falling off per acre altogether to the parallel sub- 

 soilirg, although I think the other is decidedly the 

 best method. In December, 183t>, oue ol the fields 

 was ploughed, but no traces remained of the sub- 

 soil plough having been used. I expected, from 

 the complete breaking up of the subsoil, that the 

 parts woulil have remained distinct for years ; but 



