No. 5. Deep Ploughing. — Cultivation of the Strmvherry. 



139 



Deep Ploughing. 



Deep Ploughing differs from ordinary and 

 subsoil ploughing, in this — that its special 

 object is to bring to the surface, and to mix 

 with the upper soil, a portion of that which 

 has lain long at a considerable depth, and 

 has been more or less undisturbed. 



The benefit of such an admixture of fresh 

 soil, is in many localities undoubted, while 

 in others, the practical farmer is decidedly 

 opposed to it. Un what principle does its 

 beneficial action depend, and in wiiat cir- 

 cumstances is It likely to be attended with 

 disadvantage'? 



1. It is known that, when a heavy shower 

 of rain falls, it sinks into the soil, and carries 

 down with it such readily soluble substance 

 as it meets with on the surface. But other 

 substances, also, which are more sparingly 

 soluble, slowly and gradually find their way 

 into the subsoil, and there more or less per- 

 manently remain. Among these may be 

 reckoned gypsum, and especially those sili- 

 cates of potash and soda, so useful to grain- 

 bearing plants. Such substances as these, 

 naturally accumulate beyond the reach of 

 the ordinary plough. Insoluble substances 

 likewise slowly sink. This is well known 

 to be the case with lime, when laid upon or 

 ploughed into land. So it is with clay, when 

 mixed with a surface soil of sand or peat. 

 They all descend till they get beyond the 

 reach of the common plough. Thus it hap- 

 pens that after the surface soil becomes ex- 

 hausted of one or other of these inorganic 

 compounds, which the crops require, an am- 

 ple supply of it may still be present in the 

 subsoil, though, until turned up, unavailable 

 for the promotion of vegetable growth. 



There can be little question, I think, that 

 the greater success which attends the intro- 

 duction of new implements in the hands of 

 better instructed men, upon farms long held 

 in arable culture, is to be ascribed in part to 

 this cause. One tenant, during a long lease, 

 has been in the habit of ploughing to a 

 depth of three, or at most, perhaps, four 

 inches — and from this surface the crops he 

 has planted, have derived their chief sup- 

 plies of inorganic food. He has limed his 

 land in the customary manner, and has laid 

 upon it all the manure he could raise, but 

 his crops have been usually indifferent, and 

 he considers the land of comparatively little 

 value. But another tenant comes, and with 

 better implements turns up the land to a 

 depth of seven or eight inches. He thus 

 brings to the surface the lime and the accu 

 mulated manures, which have naturalli, 

 sunk, and which his predecessor had per- 

 mitted year after year, to bury themselves 



in his subsoil. He thus has a new, often a 

 rich, and almost always a virgin soil to work 

 upon — one which, from being long buried, 

 may require a winter's exposure and mel- 

 lowing in tlie air, but which, in most cases, 

 is sure to repay him for any extra cost. 



Again, it is known that some districts, for 

 reasons perhaps not well understood, are 

 more infested than others, with insects that 

 attack the corn or other crops. These in- 

 sects, their eggs, or their larva?, generally 

 bury themselves in the undisturbed soil, im- 

 mediately beyond the ordinary reach of the 

 plough. If they remain wholly undisturbed 

 during the preparation of tlie soil, some spe- 

 cies remain in a dormant state, and the sub- 

 sequent crop may, in a great measure, es- 

 cape. Plough the land deeper than usual, 

 and you bring them all to the surface. Do 

 this in the autumn, and leave your land un- 

 sown, and the frost of winter may kill the 

 greater part, so that the crops may thereaf- 

 ter grow in safety. But let this deep plough- 

 ing be done in the spring, and you bring all 

 these insects within the reach of the early 

 sun, and thus call them to life in such num- 

 bers, as almost to insure the destruction of 

 your coming crops. — Johnston's Lectures. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Cultivation of the Strawberry. 



Every lover of the strawberry feels in- 

 terested in its cultivation, and should be dis- 

 posed to throw into common stock whatever 

 information he may obtain, that will be likely 

 to increase the supply of this delightful fruit. 

 The following observations of Dr. Bayne, a 

 successful horticulturist of Alexandria, D. C, 

 I find in a late number of Hovey's Magazine, 

 published at Boston, and I take the liberty of 

 sending them for publication in the Cabinet, 

 believing that many of your subscribers, par- 

 ticularly such as are in the neighbourhood 

 of large cities, where the fruit always com- 

 mands a high price, would find their interest 

 promoted by giving more attention to their 

 strawberry plantations. 



The editor of the Magazine, appends 

 some remarks of his own to the Doctor's 

 letter, which I also send. With respect to 

 the mooted point of male and female flow- 

 ers, I am willing to leave it to be settled by 

 amateurs. For myself, were I to make a 

 plantation of strawberry vines, I would think 

 it safest to attend to the sexual character of 

 the plants. It would at any rate, cost but 

 little trouble, and might insure the produc- 

 tiveness of my bed. U. 



Philadelphia, December 4tb, 1843. 



