288 [Assembly 



ing them pulverulent by spring, while the consequent admission 

 of atmosphere will produce all the conditions of the decay of the 

 manure so encased ; that portion which assumes the gaseous form 

 will be absorbed and retained by the ridged soil, while those por- 

 tions which are rendered soluble will pass into the V shaped fur- 

 rows, and be received and retained by the soil which has been 

 rendered purverulent by the use of the lifting subsoil plow. A 

 soil so treated may in early spring be again rendered level, and 

 ready for immediate culture, by passing a two-way plow through 

 the centre of these ridges, throwing them in the two directions 

 into the furrows. The cross surface plowing should then follow 

 to bury the manure exposed from these ridges, and to render the 

 whole surface of the soil homogeneous. If before the cross plow- 

 ing, and after the use of the two-way plow, the lifting subsoil 

 plow be repeated to a full depth in the track of the two-way plow, 

 it will render the depth of disintegration between the parts repre- 

 sented by the ridges and by the furrow alike. A clayey soil so 

 treated will in the followiag summer work as kindly as one of a 

 more loamy character. When charcoal dust (old charcoal hearths), 

 or even swamp muck can be procured, it may be laid in the fall 

 in these furrows between the ridges ; the effect of winter will 

 complete its disintegration, while it will act on the soil beneath it 

 as a mulch, and in the spring plowing its division through the 

 soil, by the splitting of the ridges and the cross plowing, will pre- 

 vent the aggregation in after years of clayey soils, and thus prove 

 a permanent corrective. Clayey soils are often rich with the in- 

 organic elements of plants, and they often contain vegetable mat- 

 ter that has not been fully acted on by the atmosphere from the 

 peculiar tenacity of the surrounding particles, and, therefore, the 

 treatment we have recommended is highly calculated to present 

 conditions necessary for these amendments. When clayey soils 

 are properly amended, they are more valuable than any other, 

 from the fact that they not only retain manures most pertinacious- 

 ly, but are less likely to be acted on by sudden changes of tem- 

 perature. When such soils are already ameliorated by this pro- 

 cess of ridging and back furrowing, the plowing of future seasons 

 should be such as will leave the surface roughened, thus exposing 

 a greater amount of surface during winter ; for, while it is highly 



