ESSAY ON DEEP TILLING. 127 



while our neighbor's crop was almost worthless. We might add, 

 however, that this same land was sub-soil ploughed two years before. 



DRAINING. 



For wet, clayey and extensive fields, intended for grass or annual 

 crops, under -ground draining, and one thorough sub-soil ploughing, 

 will be found the proper treatment, and somewhat less expensive 

 than trenching. We have had experience in less than two acres, 

 drained with brush from the orchard and stones accumulated in 

 trenching, and are getting quite in love with the operation. We 

 have five acres of clayey land, not yielding a ton of hay to the acre, 

 but are bound to have at least treble the quantity. There are 

 two ways for the farmer to calculate expense — that of doing, and 

 the virtual loss by not doing. A few years' profits would have 

 paid for draining this whole field, but want of time and tiles have 

 delayed it. 



Drain tiles cannot, at present, be procured nearer than Albany, 

 but will soon be manufactured in this state, when we trust our New 

 England agriculturists will use them extensively. There is ample 

 evidence of their utility in England and in New York. We dig 

 the drains three and a half feet deep and twenty-five feet apart. 

 Owing to the dry season the clay bottom became unusually hard, 

 and wages being high, we paid 30 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 sub-soil or Michigan plough was heard of, we used 

 to have our garden-plot ploughed twice in the same furrow, and 

 Avith great advantage. For this very unreasonable operation 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 improved 

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

 of the furrow, and bringing up the under soil, is better than sub-soil 



