No. 8. 



Subsoil Gardening. — Oat Smmng. 



257 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Subsoil Gardening. 



AtWAVS DO YOUR BEST AND LEAVE THE REST. 



Some people are afraid to look below tlie 

 surface soil, apparently regarding- it as a sa- 

 cred spot that must not be disturbed or in- 

 truded upon. Now the fact is, too many of 

 us have long been looking at the surface of 

 things, instead of penetrating into the subsoil 

 below and e.xamining its te.xture, to see if a 

 mine of wealth be not there secreted. 



The period has arrived when gardening 

 must commence, and those whose garden 

 plots are underlayed with a stiff, tenacious 

 subsoil, would do well by considering whether 

 some measures might not be taken with it 

 that would render it more certainly produc- 

 tive. It has been demonstrated beyond cavil, 

 that when a tenacious subsoil is dug and 

 loosened up, without bringing it to the sur- 

 face, or mixing it with the vegetable mould 

 of the surface soil ; if the season is very wet, 

 the water descends into it readily, and the 

 plants are protected from the injury of their 

 food being too much diluted with water; and 

 if a drought comes on, the roots penetrate 

 deeper, and are benefited by the reservoir of 

 moisture whicii lies below ; and the capillary 

 attraction in the earth brings the moisture up- 

 wards to the surface, and feeds and refreshes 

 the vegetables. Any way you may fix it, it 

 does much good, like all those good, honest 

 old rules that work well either end foremost. 



The way to work it is to dig a little gutter 

 a spit deep and the width of the spade, along 

 the side of a bed, and throw the surface earth 

 which comes out of it to the other end of the 

 bed which is to be dug, where it will be re- 

 quired for the purpose of filling the trench 

 which will be left at the conclusion of the 

 work. Then begin at one end of this gutter 

 and dig it up, and turn it over in the bottom, 

 from end to end ; when this is done, begin 

 and dig in the usual way, turning down the 

 surface soil on to the subsoil which has just 

 been dug; doing this from end to end pro- 

 perly, will leave another gutter, which dig 

 and overturn as before; and so proceed till 

 the bed is all dug two spits deep ; the subsoil 

 being turned topsyturvy, but none of it being 

 brought up or mixed with the surface mould. 



Trenching differs from this, in turning the 

 whole over, and bringing the subsoil to the 

 surface ; but that would be inexpedient when 

 the vegetable mould was not at least two 

 spits deep, unless the ground should be very 

 heavily manured. 



Now what is the objection to putting a 

 garden through this salutary process'? None 

 at all, excepting that it will require twice 

 tbe amount of labour ; and this may appear 

 to some a serious objection, but its adoption 



once in four or five years may be sufficient, 

 unless the soil is very stiff and intractable ; 

 and it enables tlie gardener, gradually every 

 year to extend his diggings a little deeper 

 into the subsoil, and by bringing up to the 

 surface a small portion of it annually, the 

 surface soil is constantly gaining depth, which 

 is a matter of prime importance in obtaining 

 good crops with much greater certainty. 



Should it be too serious an undertaking to 

 overturn a whole garden in this way in one 

 season, try a single bed the coming spring, 

 and become convinced of the importance of 

 doing every thing you undertake in the best 

 way you are capable of; and then resolve 

 never again to do any thing well enough, 

 which means, in common parlance, just as 

 bad as will in any way answer the purpose 

 for the time being. The foregoing plan has, 

 no novelty in it, for it has been often done, 

 with the greatest advantage resulting from 

 it. There is no untried theory about it that 

 need scare the most timid ; and the writer 

 does not expect to gain any thing further by 

 the suggestion, than the pleasure of seeing 

 many more good gardens, stocked with deli- 

 cious, flourishing vegetables than he has in 

 times passed witnessed. H. 



Oat Sowing. 



If the ground be ploughed in too wet a 

 state, no after management, by any other in- 

 strument, will recover its suitableness for the 

 healthy growth of vegetables: those parts of 

 fields whicii were too wet when ploughed, 

 although equally rich with other parts, not 

 only fail to yield a crop the same year, but 

 refuse for years after, owing to the difficulty 

 of reducing the soil into that friable state fit 

 for the reception and nourishment of plants, 

 after having been once stirred into the con- 

 sistence of mortar ; it then becomes, when 

 dry, impervious both to air and moisture, with- 

 out which no plant can thrive. It therefore 

 behoves the farmer to be particular, lest he 

 sow any kind of grain before the soil is dry 

 enough to receive the seed ; the sooner, how- 

 ever, this can be obtained in the spring the 

 better, and the oat crop in particular will be 

 heavier if sown by the first of February. Some 

 farmers intentionally delay sowing, lest late 

 frosts should check and weaken the young 

 plant, but this is groundless timidity : the ear- 

 liest sown crops, notwithstanding they might 

 be repeatedly exposed to frosts after being 

 above ground, have always turned out the hea- 

 viest crops at harvest : the seed should be well 

 harrowed in, finishing with the roller. The 

 best crops are often raised on land ploughed 

 up deep in late autumn, upon which the seed 

 is dragged in as soon as the frost is out of the 

 ground, without another ploughing: the quan 

 tity of seed, four bushels per acre. — Main. , 



