No. 1. 



Deep Ploughing. — Editorial Notices. 



37 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Deep Ploughiug. 



The impression among unreflecting- farm- 

 ers is almost universal, that the value of 

 deep ploughing consists in the increased 

 amount of soil in which the roots may vege- 

 tate. Whatever advantage the greater 

 amount of loose soil may be, it is by no 

 means the most important one. We all 

 know, that growing grain suffers from ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold, wet and drought. 

 Late in the fall, when we always have rain, 

 the six inches of vegetable soil are soon filled 

 with water, and perhaps the cold of the suc- 

 ceeding night freezes it, and thus are the 

 roots of your wheat embedded in ico, to suffer 

 during the approaching winter. But if the 

 land had previously undergone the opera- 

 tion of a " Prouty and Mears," nine inches 

 deep, followed by a subsoil-plough, nine in- 

 ches more, the rain had scarcely ceased to 

 fall until it had sunk beneath that surface 

 which the roots occupy. In a soil six inches 

 deep, with a hard limestone subsoil, rain has 

 no place to go; but in eighteen inches or 

 less, its own weight sinks it below the possi- 

 bility of doing harm. And while you thus 

 have your wheat secured for the wmter, in 

 a comparatively dry soil, clear of ice and its 

 evil consequences, in the spring you have a 

 vigorous plant, free from the sallow sickness 

 of an icy bed, prepared to take advantage of 

 the first genial sun which the spring brings 

 with it. And now, from this period until 

 harvest, the hopes and fears of the farmer 

 are controlled by the season : too much wet 

 drowns his wheat ; too much heat blasts it 

 with mildew, and drought prevents it from 

 filling. Deep ploughing obviates all these 

 contingencies. Wheat is drowned out, be- 

 cause its roots are in the water; mildew 

 blasts it, because the hot sun beats upon 

 a surface saturated with water, and pro- 

 duces a sudden flow of sap in the plant, 

 which is unnatural ; and it is the more des- 

 tructive, because the constitution of the plant 

 has previously suffered from one of the ex- 

 tremes of cold, wet or drought: your wheat 

 does not fill, because, perhaps there is not 

 moisture enough in the earth to replenish 

 the plant; — but if your loose soil be deep 

 enough, no matter how much or how long it 

 rains it will have scarcely ceased until the 

 roots are relieved. Pour a bucket of water 

 upon a sponge, and you have but just quit 

 pouring until the upper surface is compara- 

 tively dry ; so it is with the spongy earth, 

 the water's own weight takes it immediately 

 below the place where harm is done, not to 

 be lost, but to remain there as a reservoir, to 

 replenish the thirsty plant through that sea^ 



son when drought so often does its destruc- 

 tive work. In our limestone land, a rain 

 may fill the six inches of vegetable soil, and 

 when full, so hard and impervious is the sub- 

 soil, that the residue runs into the hollows, 

 and its place of escape among the sink- holes 

 and crevices of the rocks: — the heat of a 

 week's sun dries this up, and the wheat re- 

 quires more rain, and it suffers. But if you 

 have twelve inches of water in your reser- 

 voir below, there it remams to answer the 

 drafts of a six or eight weeks sun, with that 

 regularity of moisture which the plant re- 

 quires, and which brings you through all 

 the contingencies of heat and cold, wet and 

 dry. W, 



Carlisle, 4tli August, 1844. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 



Philadelphi.\, Eighth Month, 1844. 



The 8th volume of the Farmer's Cabinet closed with 

 the last number: the 9th commences with this month. 



It is now a year since the present proprietor took 

 the concern entirely into his own hands ; and while he 

 was determined to devote himself to its interests, he 

 felt that he would have continual occasion to make 

 drafts upon the liberality and Kindly feeling of his 

 subscribers. He was aware that his inexperience in 

 his new position, might not unfrequently expose him 

 to embarrassment. He felt also, that however ambi- 

 tions he might be, to edit a paper which the agricultu- 

 ral part of the community should cheerfully acknow- 

 ledge to be of public utility, and with which himself 

 should feel satisfied, his ability to do this did not so 

 much depend upon himself, as upon the active and effi- 

 cient aid which he confidently hoped would be rendered 

 by his friends. This hope has to a very considerable 

 extent been realised: yet it would aiford the Editor 

 much pleasure to find at the close of the coming vol- 

 ume, that the frequent contributions of his corres- 

 pondents had made it more valuable than any of those 

 which have preceded it. It is not in the calculations 

 of the Editor to sit in his office and prepare unassisted, 

 such an Agricultural Journal as the country shall be 

 satisfied with. He relies upon the help and the e.xpe- 

 rience, and the facts, and the speculations of others. 

 He promises, so far as bis judgment will enable him 

 to do it, to make his selections of a character that 

 shall always instruct— but he takes this opportunity 

 to urge upon the readers of the Cabinet, to make it 

 rich in original matter, and to remember that he de- 

 pends upon them to do so. 



We may also remark, that our subscription list is 

 not so well filled up as it ought to be. Does not every 

 subscriber feel that he might do something in this 

 matter? and that his interests as well as our own, 

 would be promoted by circulating more widely a paper, 

 industriously devoted to the substantial agriculture of 

 the United States. 



