26 APPENDIX. 



imported from England, a subsoil plough, which may 

 be worked with a less powerful team than the one 

 commonly in use in that country. 



In a climate like our own, which at that season of 

 the year when our crops, particularly our root crops, 

 most need the benefit of moisture that may be deriv- 

 ed from deep ploughing, and are most likely to suffer 

 from drought, the use of the subsoil plough would 

 be attended with unquestionable benefit. On a field 

 of my own, which had been set to an orchard, and 

 therefore kept under the plough for some years, in 

 attempting to under drain a part of it, that was usu- 

 ally flooded by water in the spring of the year, I 

 noticed what the English call the " upper crust.'" 

 This lay some inches below the surface, at the depth 

 to which the land had been usually ploughed, formed 

 by the treading of the oxen and the movement of 

 the plough over it. This I found to be so hard as to 

 be apparently as impenetrable by the roots of plants 

 as a piece of marble, and discovered to me at once 

 the cause of the failure, in a great measure, of my 

 crop of potatoes the year before. Having discovered 

 what I supposed to be the cause of the failure, I set 

 about devising measures to remedy it. 



I had never seen a subsoil plough, there never 

 having been one seen or made in this part of the 

 country. I consulted my ingenious friends, Messrs. 

 Prouty and Mears, and, at my request, they made 

 an instrument of very cheap and simple construction, 

 consisting of a wooden beam, about three inches 

 square, and three feet long, with three tines or teeth 

 of the common cultivator, placed in a direct line in 

 the beam, extending about eight inches below the 

 beam; to this handles were attached similar to the 

 handles of a plough. On trying this by running after 

 the drill plough, I found, in my hard, stony subsoil, 

 it was quite inadequate to the business, being too 

 light and of insufficient strength. I then had one 

 constructed of similar plan, but much heavier and 

 stronger. The beam five feet long, six inches square. 



