60 EEPORT OF COMMITTEE. 



One object then in plowing, is to break the stubble, and re- 

 duce the soil to that degree of fineness that the rains, dews and air 

 may penetrate them, and deposit their fertilizing influences. 



Another object in plowing, is to mix and deepen the soils. It 

 often happens that the surface soil is sandy and the sub-soil clay, 

 or the surface soil composed ^mainly of vegetable loam, and the 

 sub-soil wanting. Now it is important that these soils are 

 mixed and made deeper and changed to a proper fineness, before 

 they are fit to give sustenance to the young plant, and give more 

 extensive range to the young rootlets. The depth to which land 

 should be ploughed, should be varied according to circumstances. 

 We would not, however, favor the principle of turning up a large 

 amount of sub-soil at once, but at each successive plowing, gauge 

 the plow so that it may remove and bring to the surface about one 

 inch more in depth than at the previous plowing; this will add an 

 amount of sub -soil to the surface, equal to one hundred loads of 

 thirty bushels each, to be converted into surface soil, and this op- 

 eration repeated till the required depth is obtained. 



It was said, with much emphasis, nearly half a century ago, by 

 a scientific and practical farmer, " plowing is too deep when it 

 buries all the richer parts, and brings to the top only a cold and 

 gravelly substance, unless you have manure in such abundance, 

 that you can create a new vegetable surface." This principle is as 

 true to day as then. It may also be said with equal emphasis, that 

 plowing is too frequent when the excess of crops does not fully 

 compensate for the extra cost of plowing. 



Every observing farmer must have noticed that when imper- 

 fect plowing has been done around trees and stumps, and about 

 fences, that the crops are poor and feeble. This is not caused by 

 the poverty or sterility of the soil, because as the plow rises out 

 of the ground to the surface, it brings with it, and deposits the 

 richer parts of the soil. The feebleness of the crop is caused by 

 the indifferent plowing, and consequently from poor tillage that 

 the plant has received afterwards. 



As before said, the rains and the atmosphere are not only 

 charged with elements of fertility, but they are agents acting with 

 heat in preparing food in the soil for the use of plants. Rains, heat 

 and air should not only enter into but circulate i/irough the soil. 

 Stagnant water and stagnant air are alike hurtful to animals and 

 plants. 



