DEEP TILLAGE. 117 



torn became unusually hard, and, wages being high, wc paid 

 thirty cents a rod ; but they can be made for less under more 

 favorable circumstances. 



Deep Ploughing. — This is the first step taken by farmers 

 in the course of innovation on their superficial culture. Many* 

 however, are still inveterately opposed to even this; but we 

 hope they will plough a few inches deeper every year, as has 

 been often modestly recommended. Before either the subsoil 

 or Michigan plough was heard of, we used to have our garden 

 ploughed twice in the same furrow, and with great advantage. 

 For this operation, very unreasonable to the man of the plough, 

 we had to pay more than doubly dear, and might not have 

 escaped mobbing had a dozen like fellows been at hand. 



The Michigan, or double, plough is indeed a timely invention. 

 Its work is imperfect trenching. On land that would be im- 

 proved by draining, but neglected, the turning of the sod into 

 the bottom of the furrow, and bringing up the under soil, is 

 better than subsoil ploughing. The surface is left in fine tilth 

 for one ploughing, and the drainage effected by the greensward 

 beneath keeps it so ; and almost any crop will tell of its good 

 effects during the summer. But this is temporary. Deeper 

 and more permanent results will be effected by subsoil 

 ploughing. 



Subsoil Ploughing. — This is ploughing through and loosen- 

 ing the substrata without bringing to the surface any of the 

 farmer's obnoxious "cold soil." It is not recommended on wet 

 land previous to draining by those who have had experience, 

 but afterwards its effects are said to be very marked. We 

 have subsoil-ploughed, to an average depth of twenty-two 

 inches, half an acre, with a hard, gravelly subsoil, intended 

 chiefly for a lawn. This land we cultivated with vegetables 

 one year prior, and two years since, with the addition of trees. 

 The comparative thrift of the former after the operation, and 

 the luxuriant growth of the latter during the summer droughts, 

 were remarkable. Some of the pear shoots measured from five 

 to six feet. It is on these not very unusual occasions of drought 

 that the importance of deep tillage in any form becomes most 

 apparent. But for no product of the earth is it more so than 

 in tree culture. 



