220 ColmarCs European Agriculture. 



made, drawn by four horses, stirring and breaking the soil twelve or four- 

 teen inches deeper, but not turning it over. Sometimes the iron-pan was 

 so hard, that the horses were set fast, and it became necessary to use the - 

 pickaxe to release them, before they could proceed. After the first year, 

 the land produced double the former crops, many of the carrots being 16 

 inches in length, and of proportionate thickness. This amendment could 

 have arisen only from the deep ploughing. Manure I had scarcely any, 

 the land not producing then stover sufficient to keep any stock worth men- 

 tioning, and it was not possible to procure sufficient quantity from the town. 

 The plough tore up by the roots all the old gorse, heather, and fern, so that 

 the land lost all the distinctive character of heath land, the first year after 

 the deep ploughing, which it had retained, notwithstanding the ploughing 

 with the common ploughs for 35 years. Immediately after this subsoil- 

 ploughing, the crop of wheat was strong and long in the straw, and the 

 grain close-bosomed and heavy, weighing 64 pounds to the bushel ; the 

 quantity, as might be expected, not large, (about 26 bushels to the acre,) 

 but great in comparison to what it produced before. The millers were de- 

 sirous of purchasing it, and could scarcely believe it was grown upon the 

 heath land, as in former years it was difficult to get a miller to look at a 

 sample. Let this be borne in mind, that this land then had had no manure 

 for years, was run out, and could only have been meliorated by the admis- 

 sion of air and moisture, from deep ploughing. This year the wheat on this 

 land has looked most promising ; the ears large and heavy, the straw long, 

 and I expect the produce will be from 34 to 36 bushels per acre. My 

 Swedish turnips on this land this year are very good ; my pudding and 

 sugar-loaf turnips failing in many parts, sharing the fate of those of my 

 meighbors, having been greatly injured by the torrents of rain which fell 

 after they had shown themselves above the ground. Turnips must have a 

 deep and well-pulverized soil, in order to enable them to swell, and the tap- 

 roots to penetrate in search of food. The tap-root of a Swedish turnip has 

 been known to penetrate 39 inches into the ground. T will add only two or 

 three general observations. 



" 1st. The work done by the plough far exceeds trenching with the 

 spade, as the plough only breaks and loosens the land all around, without 

 turning the subsoil to the top, which, in some cases, (where the subsoil is 

 bad,) would be injurious to the early and tender plants; and if the subsoil 

 is good, it would be rendered more fit for vegetation after the air and mois- 

 ture had been permitted to enter. The ploughing is also far preferable to 

 trenching by the spade, even for planting, (i. e. trees,) as it may be done 

 at one fourth the expense. 



" 2dly. It were very preferable, if possible, to work the horses abreast, 

 pair and pair; but, in using this plough, the horses must work in a line, for, 

 if abreast, the horse on the land ploughed would soon be fatigued, by sink- 

 ing up to his hocks ; and, to render the draught more easy, the second horse 

 from the plough should not be fastened to the chains of the horse next the 

 plough ; but the chains of the second horse should be made long enough to 

 be hooked about two feet behind the back-band of the chains of the horse 



