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Agriculture is the most Heal&y and Honorable, as it is the most Natural and TTsefol pttrsmt of Man. 



VOL. XI. 



ROCHESTER, N. Y.— MARCH, 1850. 



NO. 3. 



SUB-SOIL PLOWING. 



* 



Mt'cn as ha.s been f-aid in favor of deep plowing and 

 siili-soiling the earth, the subject has hardly begun to 

 excite that general attenion among farmers which it 

 ought to command. There is scarcely one acre in a 

 thoiusand on which a deep, mellow, and productive 

 soil can be found, without breaking the jxin^ or com- 

 pact mass that lies just below the surface of the 

 ground. Bo far as the warm atmosphere can freely 

 penetrate, with its oxygen, carbonic acid, ammonia, 

 and vapors, chemical action will be extended, roots 

 will grow and rot, and a fertile soil be gradually 

 developed. The benefits of deep tillage do not all 

 accrue immediately after the operation is executed. 

 The formation of a deep, mellow, and rich soil, by 

 the most skilful use of natural elements and agencies, 

 ^s the work of many years. To attain this result, 

 one needs not only mineral and organic matter in due 

 proportions in the surface of the earth, but both 

 minerals and mold of a particular kind, and in a par- 

 ticular condition of solubility and combination. 



After a man has deliberately made up his mind 

 that it is better to own and cultivate good land than 

 poor land, and that there is such a thing as improv- 

 ing the natural fertility of the earth, his first thoughts 

 should be directed to the point, whether any field, or 

 part of a field, needs draining. Stagnant water 

 within three feet of the surface will rise by capillary 

 attraction to a degree fatal to that warmth and fria- 

 bility of the soil, without which its highest product- 

 iveness can never be reached. All under-draining 

 should be into ditches at least three feet deep. But 

 there are millions of acres of tilled land that need no 

 artificial drainage, which will be greatly improved by 

 deep, or sub-soil plowing. The advantages of this 

 mode of culture are the more speedy and decisive, as 

 the manuring, liming, and ashing of the land accom- 

 pany the breaking up of the inert mass of clay or 

 gravel below the surface soil. It is not pretended 

 that this dead earth will instantly become fertile. 

 Admitting that the comminuted clay really contains 

 salts of lime, potash, soda, magnesia, and soluble 

 silica, it takes time to prepare those fertilizers for the 

 nutrition of cereal plants. Salts of iron and alumina, 

 such as copperas and alum, are apt to exist in excess, 

 and require a little caustic lime to decompose them 

 and form gypsum or sulphate of lime. Plants that 

 contain considerable nitrogen, such as peas and 

 clover, and of course yield a liberal per centage of 

 the alkali called ammonia, when they decay, are 



e.vceedingly favorable to the deepening of a thin soil, 

 in connection with deep plowing. Eyery farmer 

 should understand the difference in the economical 

 value of vegetable mold. Sup[)ose one has 100 lbs, 

 of cabbage, exclusive of water, in one heap, and a 

 like weight of pine saw-dust in another. Which 

 will form 50 lbs. of the better mold ? The solid 

 organized matter is aljke in each mass ; and why 

 should there be any difference in the economica! value 

 of 100 lbs. of cabbage or 100 lbs. of saw-dust, either 

 for feeding cows and children, or feeding wheat and 

 corn plants t 



In principle, there is no difference iii feodiug 

 animals, from man down to a coral or sponge, and 

 feeding plants. All living beings need food adapted 

 to their peculiar natural wants. Hence, place a baby 

 oyster in saline water that contains not a particle of 

 lime, and its stony covering must cease to grow. 

 Nature is incapable of creating the first atom of lime, 

 or of any other element consumed to form any plant 

 or animal. A deep, fertile soil, is one that abounds 

 in the raw material for making bread, milk, and meat, 

 in an available form, to the deptii of twelve or twenty- 

 four inches, as the case may be. Is there anytliing 

 unreasonable in saying that such a soil possesses a 

 very great intrinsic value ? A cubic foot of such 

 land in the valley of the Genesee contains, on an 

 average, over a pound of common lime. This gives 

 over 43,000 pounds of this mineral to an acre, within 

 twelve inches of the surface of the ground. The 

 writer is credibly informed by one of the best farmers 

 in the State of Delaware, that a million bushels of 

 burnt lime are now annually used for improving the 

 soil in that small State. One farmer pays a *il000 

 a year for guano. 



In the last number of the Working Farmer we 

 find statements in regard to sub-soiling, from which 

 we extract the following. James Carnahah, Presi- 

 dent of Princeton College, states the results of an 

 "unintentional" experiment he made in 1848, in 

 sub-soiling. 



"I wished," says he, "to sub-soil a lot in soil with 

 a hard pan, and as I had only one team, I hired another 

 to turn over the sod preceding the sub-soil plow. He 

 came and worked one day, but did not return the 

 next. As the time for planting was approaching, I 

 directed my farmer to go on and plow in the common 

 way as deep as he could. He did so. The follow- 

 ing day the other plowman returned, worked a day 

 (sub-soiling) and then was absent. 



" The result was, the lot was plowed alternately 



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