

CHAPTER IX. 



IMPROVEMENT OF LAND. 



SECTION 1. How to increase the Fertility of our Soils. 



THERE can be no doubt that as yet agriculture, comparatively speaking, 

 is only in its infancy ; for although it must certainly be admitted that 

 much has been done for the improvement of the laud since the begin- 

 ning of the present century, still it is equally evident that we have not 

 attained to anything like clear and definite views as to how its latent 

 capabilities can be fully brought out and made available for the benefit 

 of all concerned. But to illustrate the point, let us take a rapid survey 

 of the present state of some of the leading branches of practical farming. 

 This will enable us to judge as to how far its cultivators are acquainted 

 with or understand the nature of the latent capabilities of their land. 



First, then, with regard to the manner in which the tillage of the land 

 is conducted. When a piece of cultivated land is prepared for receiving 

 a fresh crop, its surface is broken up by the plough. This is made to 

 operate by cutting and turning over to one side successive slices of the 

 surface, averaging from five to nine inches deep, by about ten inches in 

 breadth. In those parts of the country where a superior kind of culti- 

 vation is carried out, however, we frequently find the land ploughed to an 

 average depth of twelve inches ; but, generally speaking, the operation is 

 not carried deeper than about nine inches. This latter depth, then, may 

 be said to be that to which in most cases the land is cultivated in 

 this country, and upon this thin stratum of soil all the manures are 

 applied and all the crops grown. From this we are naturally led to 

 conclude that farmers, generally speaking, are of opinion that all the 

 capabilities of the laud lie only in the upper stratum of the soil, and 

 that under this there exists something injurious to crops, which should 

 not be disturbed nor in any way called into action, lest some hidden 

 evil be thereby aroused and thus blight their crops. It is indeed a 

 fact worthy of remark in regard to a large proportion of the farmers 

 in this country, that they are very much averse to disturbing the subsoil 



