378 



Frequent Stirring of the Soil. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Frequent Stirring of the Soil. 



Mr. Editor, — Notliin<r strikes me as more 

 just and rational, than the reniari<s of a sub- 

 scriber, at page 353 of the last number of the 

 Cabinet, on the " pulverization of soils." 

 Tliere was a time, when a system of fallow- 

 intf for this express purpose, recommendino- 

 to give as many as from four to nine different 

 ploughings during the year, was as rigidly 

 preserved, as the want of all that relates to 

 it, is now the order of the day ; but 1 begin to 

 see that here also, the middle path is the 

 best ; for, whether it be that the crop draws 

 its chief nourishment from the air, or the 

 earth, or both, the due pulverization of the 

 soil must still be of importance, to enable the 

 crop to seek its pabulum in the pasture of 

 the earth, as Jethro Tull terms it. And 

 although I am sure I am no fallowist, yet I 

 am as sure that to properly pulverize certain 

 descriptions of soils, requires fit times and 

 seasons, and the labour of the hands — all 

 which is costly and troublesome perhaps; 

 but unless we do something for the renovation 

 of our soils in the way of returning to them 

 what we have taken away, they will go on to 

 deteriorate, instead of improve, as, with good 

 managers, land ought always to do ; and there 

 is no way in which this can so easily and 

 profitably be done, as by oft-repeated stirring 

 and pulverizing the soil. 



A book has lately fallen into my hand.«, in 

 which the subject is considered in a very just 

 and lucid manner; and although it was pub- 

 lished at a time when the doctrine of fallow- 

 ing was believed in and practised rigidly, yet 

 the excellent sense and sound reasoning of 

 the writer have enabled him to choose that 

 middle course, which, even now is, I consider, 

 perfectly in season. The work is entitled, 

 "Observations on Husbandry," by Edward 

 Lisle, residing in the county of Hampshire 

 (England,) a part of the kingdom which has 

 always ranked high in the estimate of agri- 

 cultural knowledge; printed in the year 1750. 

 In his chapter on ploughing, the author says: 



"The ancient writers on liusbandry lay a 

 very great stress on making the ground fine 

 by frequent ploughings ; the Romans con- 

 ceiving that they could not give their lands 

 too much tillage, especially if it be of a rich 

 nature, so as to hold water ; then it ought to 

 be turned up so often and reduced to so fine 

 a powder, that the track of tiie plough-share 

 may be scarcely distinguishable in it. The 

 sun and air are thus enabled to operate fully 

 upon it, by which the soil is benefited more 

 than by a coat of dung. Besides, the water 

 sinks more easily through pulverized earth,* 

 60 that the roots of the plants are in less dan- 



* Another authority for the use of the subsoil plough. 



ger of being suffocated by too much moisture, 

 or of becoming injured and destroyed by the 

 cold. And there is this further advantage in 

 it — by admitting the air more plentifully into 

 the vessels of the roots, it gives them a freer 

 respiration, which is no less necessary to 

 plants than to animals. Those, therefore, 

 labour under error, who fancy that the turn- 

 ing and stirring of land frequently in the 

 winter, before it is employed for a crop, 

 causes it to exhale and spend itself; there 

 being, in truth, no compo.'^t or dressing com- 

 parable to this continual motion, for it evap- 

 orates the malignant impurities of the impris- 

 oned air, loosening the parts, and giving 

 deliverance to these seminal salts and' rudi- 

 ments, which, wherever latent, are free to 

 move and exert themselves: more benefit is 

 thus ascribed to repeated stirrings, opening 

 and ventilating the earth, than to dunging. 

 But if to pulverize the soil were the only end 

 in ploughing the land, without regard to open- 

 ing it to the emanations of the sun, a frosty 

 winter-fallow would do this and make it as 

 friable as a summer-fallow; but the difference 

 is great, for the sun, as has been already said, 

 improves the earth as much as dung does ; 

 therefore, the more you open the land to the 

 influence of the sun by ploughing, the greater 

 the benefit. In Asia and other burning coun- 

 tries their grain does not scorch ; and this is 

 owing to the fineness to which their land is 

 reduced by pulverization : they having such 

 dry seasons ibr fallowing, the soil falls down 

 much closer about the roots than it does here, 

 and does not bake and crack by the heat, but 

 by reason of its mellow parts, drinks in abun- 

 dance of the dews, whicii our land, less friable, 

 does not. But, beneficial as is the practice 

 of repeatedly stirring the soil, it is better to 

 omit it altogether than to turn up tlie ground 

 while it is wet, and in a state of mortar, or 

 even when it is only partially wet, after a 

 long season of drought; ibr if you touch it 

 while in this wet and dauby condition, there 

 will be no working it after tor the v\hole year 

 — it must lie useless; and if you plough it 

 up when the surface only has thus been 

 thoroughly wetted, it will be injured tor three 

 years atter. The best season lor stirring the 

 land is, certainly, when it is neither too wet 

 or too dry, for by too much moisture, it will 

 stick together and be like mortar; and after 

 a long drought, and allhoiigh a little moist- 

 ened at the top, the ploughsliare will either 

 not be able to penetrate it at all, or if it 

 should enter, it will not render it fine but 

 turn it up in large clods, which will be a 

 continual hindrance to the next ploughing, 

 and at lust be left unbroken and in innpene- 

 trahle lumps on the field ; and add to this, the 

 part which lies deepest is always the least 

 fruitful. One great use in fallowing is, to 



