248 HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 



The address was delivered by Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, of 

 Dorchester. 



ALFRED BAKER, President. 

 J. W. BOYDEN, Secretary. 



Subsoil Ploughing and Compost Manures. 



Subsoil ploughing has not, in this region, as yet arrested the 

 attention of farmers, as its importance deserves. The operation 

 of the double coultered plough, — called the Michigan plough 

 in this country, but Morton's plough in Europe, — will, we 

 hope, be the means of exciting more interest in the subject. 



From the known downward tendencies of the chairman of 

 the committee, the society will not think it strange if he gets a 

 little nearer to the rocks than the subsoil plough reaches. He 

 will, therefore, venture to suggest a mode of enriching land, to 

 which he called the attention of farmers in his final report on 

 the Geology of Massachusetts, but which probably has been 

 forgotten. It is well known that some of the most valuable 

 manures are soluble in water, and such, of course, are carried 

 downwards through the soil as deep as the water penetrates. 

 This will in a great measure descend till it meets with a stratum 

 of hard pan, or clay, that is impervious to water ; thence we 

 may expect that the deposit lying immediately above such im- 

 pervious stratum will contain salts, valuable as manure, if 

 brought to the surface. This has been proved by several facts, 

 which are cited in the report above alluded to, under the head 

 of muck sand, (p. 107.) But the water-bearing stratum, 

 whether loam or sand, may lie near the surface ; and this may 

 be one of the secrets of the good effects of subsoil ploughing. 

 In many cases this stratum may be recognized by the springs 

 that issue from it in steep banks ; and it may prove more valu- 

 able than even subsoil ploughing. 



On the subject of compost manures, two statements were re- 

 ceived : one from Samuel Powers, of Hadley, to whom the 

 committee award the highest premium of ten dollars ; and a 



