No. 11. 



The Deanslon Subsoil Ploush. 



361 



The Deanston Subsoil Plough. 



The plough from whence the above draw- 

 ing has been made, was brought to this coun- 

 try and deposited in the Franklin Institute 

 by the late James Ronaldson, Esq. It is a 

 gigantic implement, measuring 12 feet 6 

 inches in length, constructed throughout of 

 wrought iron, weighing upwards of 300 lbs., 

 and capable of rooting up stones of two hun- 

 dred pounds wciglit; it is intended for a team 

 of 4 or 6, or even eight horses or oxen, when 

 it might be let down to the depth of the 

 beam. But much of the .soil of our country 

 would be eflectualiy worked with an instru- 

 ment of far less magnitude, constructed 

 chiefly of wood and properly ironed, the sole 

 or share, probably, being of cast iron; the 

 length of the handles being in proportion to 

 the weight of the plough to be raised by 

 means of their leverage. 



Subsoil ploughing has formed in Europe — 

 as it is destined to do in this and every other 

 country — a new era in agriculture; it is 

 applicable to all soils, and even in the 

 most sandy will be found of superlative im- 

 portance, preventing the disease called the 

 stud in wheat, which is supposed to arise 

 from a superabundance of moisture which 

 cannot pass away, by reason of some imper- 

 vious substratum, until it has chilled and dead- 

 ened the roots of the plants and brought on a 

 mortification of their sap-vessels: the disease 

 is in some parts known as the stunts or stun- 

 ned. It is to be understood that the subsoil 

 plough does not turn the furrow — it passes 

 'along the open furrow made by the common 

 plough, rooting up the bottom to any depth it 

 might be put to, thus leaving- it stirred and 

 pulverized, to form a bed of loosened soil, into 

 which the lower or tap roots of the plants 

 might penetrate, when they will easily find 

 moisture in seasons of the greatest drought, 

 and from whence it is pumped up by them 

 for the supply of the lateral roots, which are 

 destined to seek food in the upper stratum of 

 the earth. The subsoil plough will be found, 

 in many cases, to take the place of under- 

 draining, especially if on ploughing, the land 

 can be laid to give a gradual fall through- 



out its whole length — a matter of the high- 

 est importance in the cultivation of every soil. 

 Mr. Phinney, of Lexington, has the following 

 most judicious observations on this subject^ 

 which from such a source speak volumes; 

 he says : — 



"The subject of subsoil ploughing is one upon whirh 

 tliere has been little saiil and less done in this country . 

 in all our lands there is no douht that great henefit 

 would be derived from the use of the subsoil plough; 

 in England, the efllct in increasing their crops, as 

 stated by some agricultural writers, would seem almost 

 incredible; by these means their crops have been dou- 

 bled, and in many instances trebled; the expense is, 

 however, stated to be very great, in one case to the 

 amount of thirteen liundred pounds sterling on a farm 

 of 500 acres. Diil an instrument ntiglit be constructed, 

 which would be highly beneficial in the hands of our 

 farmers, and be obtained at much less cost; requiring 

 a less powerful team than the one commonly in use in 

 that country; it might be constructed of wood, and be 

 in proportion to the soil in which it is intended to 

 operate. In a climate like ours, wliich at that season 

 of the year when our crops most need the benefit of 

 moisture that may be derived from deep plovghbig, and 

 are most liable to suffer from drought, the use of the 

 subsoil plough would be attended with unquestionable 

 benefit; on a field which had been planted as an or- 

 cliard, and therefore kept under the plough for some 

 years, in attempting to underdrain a part of it that 

 was usually flooded with water in the spring, I noticed 

 what the English rail the ' upper crust;" this lay some 

 inches below the surface, at the deptli to which the 

 land had been usually ploughed, and had been formed 

 by the treading of the oxen and the movement of the 

 plough over it, and which I found so hard as to be, ap- 

 parently, as impenetrable as marble ; this discovered to 

 me at once the cause of the failure of my crop of pota- 

 toes the year before, and having thus discovered the 

 "cause" of the evil, I set about devising measures to 

 "remedy" it. I therefore constructed a subsoil plough, 

 the beam 5 feet 6 inches long, and C inches square, into 

 which were inserted three tines of the best Swedish 

 iron, 12 inches long below the beam ; this instrument, 

 drawn by two yoke of oxen and following the common 

 plough, performed the work better than I had antici- 

 pated; the "upper crust" gave way, the resistance 

 formed by the hard gravelly bottom was soon over- 

 come, the earth being loosened twelve or fourteen 

 inches below the surface; and although not so tho- 

 roughly worked as it would have been by a perfect 

 subsoil plough, yet, in my hard and strong subsoil, I 

 am convinced that I found in it an admirable substi- 

 tute for the English subsoil plough. A part of my car- 

 rots was sown on this land, which had been appro- 

 priated to the same crop the last year; no more ma- 

 nure was applied than in the previous year, and not- 

 withstanding the very severe drought, which greatly 

 injured most of our root crops, my crop of carrots on 

 this land was nearly double that of last year; and there 

 is no cause to which I can attribute this great increase 

 of produce but the use cf my newly-constructed substi- 

 tute for a subsoil plough. The soil was stirred to the 

 depth of fourteen inches, and by these moans the car- 

 rots were enabled to strike deep, and thereby, not only 

 to find more nourishment, but to overcome in a great 

 measure, the effects of a very pinching drought." 



