t856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



429 



departure, just ready to rise high above the trees 

 to pursue their journey. 



They visit the North in pairs, and return to the 

 South in flocks. It is now a favorable opportunity 

 to notice from day to day, for a few days, the hab- 

 its of these cheerful and happy birds. They seem 

 remarkably sociable and lively. Let persons be 

 stationed in a line southward, and note their obser- 

 vations, and these flocks wi!l be seen journeying 

 toward the tropics. Says Audubon : — "I saw flocks 

 of swallows for several days near St. Augustine, 

 just preceding Dec. 1st." He was of the opinion 

 that they wintered along the South coast of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



The habits of the bam swallow are very interest- 

 ing, and pretty well known, even to the most care- 

 less observers. Let the readers of the JVew Eng- 

 land Farmer observe the day of the swallow's de- 

 parture, this summer, the day when you see the 

 last flock, and note it down in your dailyjournal. 



For tite New England Farmer. 



DEEP PLOWniG. 



BY F. IIOLBROOK. 



^Iy Friend Brown : — I was pleased with the 

 article in a late number of the Farmer, from your 

 able Northampton correspondent, E. C, on the 

 subject of Deep Plowing. So far as I know, his 

 views are entirely correct ; and the good results 

 realized from gradually deepening his plowing, are 

 such as I should expect would follow his practice. 

 He also relates the instance occurring in his neigh- 

 borhood, of a gentleman from Boston having at 

 once i)ut a great plow beam deep into land which 

 had not before been plowed more than five inches 

 deep, and turning up a large mass of under soil 

 which had never before seen the day, without ma- 

 nuring the land at all, and finding that good crops 

 did not follow the practice, he and his neighbors 

 concluded that deep plowing would not do, that it 

 "killed the land." This is by no means a singular 

 and solitary case of indiscriminate deep plowing, 

 and of incorrect and hasty conclusions drawn there- 

 from. Similar cases are of too frequent occur- 

 rence, and the public should be cautioned against 

 plunging the plow into a poor subsoil at hap-haz- 

 ard. 



The average depth of plowing in New England 

 will not perhaps exceed five to six inches. Now 

 take two farms of equal soil and location, equally 

 manured well, and otherwise cultivated alike, ex- 

 cept that on one the plowing is gradually and judi- 

 ciously deepened till an active surface soil of eight 

 to ten inches is attained, while the other is never 

 plowed more than five or six inches deep, and I 

 feel q'ute^ure that the land plowed deepest will 

 produce the best of the two, and be worth the most 

 "in after years, either to sell or to keep. Especial- 

 ly will the advantages of deep plowing be mani- 

 fest, in those hot and dry seasons which in our cli- 

 mate so frequently occur, when the crops of all 

 kinds will be much more likely to stand through 



the drought and yield well in a soil deeply worked, 

 than in one that is shallow, with perhaps a natural 

 hard pan near the surface, or an artificial one, pro- 

 duced by the oft repeated action of the sole of the 

 plow and feet of the oxen or horses, in an invaria- 

 bly shallow furrow channel. 



An old friend who has resided now twenty years 

 in Illinois, calling on me the other day, remarked 

 that in portions of that State the farmers were al- 

 ready finding it advantageous to plow deeper 

 than formerly, when the land was new ; that on his 

 farm, with a surface soil mostly of vegetable mould, 

 on a subsoil of clay, he was now succeeding better 

 in the production of crops, by deep plowing, not- 

 withstanding that the surface soil is somewhat 

 worn, than he did formerly by shallow plowing and 

 a virgin soil ; and that every third or fourth year 

 there occurred a protracted summer drought, which 

 was apt to spoil the corn crop planted on shallow 

 furrows, but by deeper plowing the bad eff"ects of 

 the drought were, in a measure, overcome, and a 

 fair yield of corn secured. 



From several years of practice and somewhat 

 particular observation, I am persuaded that there 

 are but very few, if an}', lands that may not be 

 benefited by gradually deepening the soil, say an 

 inch or two at each breaking up from grass, until 

 a depth of eight to ten inches is obtained. The 

 better class of lands will of course be susceptible of 

 a deeper tilth than could perhaps ever be conven- 

 iently given to those of ihe poorest quality, with 

 naturally a very thin surface soil, and a loose, hun- 

 gry, or sour, or cold subsoil. The former will also 

 allow of a more rapid increase in depth of furrow 

 than would be advisable in the cultivation of the 

 latter. Of course, no one can reasonably expect 

 that deep plowing, alone, will make the thin primi- 

 tive soils of New England highly productive. We 

 cannot at the best do much at farming here, with- 

 out the liberal use of fertilizers accompanying good 

 cultivation. But the advocates of deeper plowing 

 than commonly prevails claim that, in connection 

 with good farming otherwise, their system insures 

 a greater improvement of the farm and more uni- 

 formly good crops, taking all kinds of seasons into 

 view, than can be realized from a shallow tilth ; 

 that land deeply and thoroughly plowed, derives 

 more advantage from desirable atmospheric influ- 

 ences, is easier to work in the after-cultivation of the 

 crops, and susceptible of more thorough pulveriza- 

 tion, than can be attained by the shallow and su- 

 perficial plowing which too commonly prevails. 



But as remarked at the outset, a portion of the 

 community need to be cautioned against indiscrim- 

 inate deep plowing. Many persons are now year- 

 ly going to farming from other business, entering 

 upon their new calling, or what was, perhaps, the 

 pursuit of their younger and happiest days, with 

 much enthusiasm and delight, and at the first go- 



