Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 525 



and ages have rolled away while that thin stratum of humus, or 

 fine vegetable mold has been forming. This fine mold is one of 

 the fundamental requirements of a fertile soil. No plant can grow 

 satisfactorily and mature perfectly, without access to a bed of such 

 fine mold. And growing plants require the full benefit of the 

 mold when they first begin to grow, far more than at any other 

 stage of their growth. From this fact we can conceive why a 

 stratum of fine, fertile mold should always cover the surface of 

 the land. When the tiny seed sends forth its tender roots, and 

 pushes up its stem, it requires all the advantages of a mellow, fer- 

 tile seed bed, filled with carbonaceous material that is in a condi- 

 tion to promote vegetable growth. The young plants need to be 

 started in the most congenial soil. After the roots become strong, 

 they can strike down into the substratum, that is less fertile than 

 the mellow seed bed that nature has prepared on the surface of the 

 land. Now, then, suppose we thrust in the deep tiller plows, and 

 turn the thm stratum of mold one or two feet beneath the surface, 

 and bring to the surface a layer of heavy, unfertile earth, that must 

 be exposed to the influence of the elements an age, or more, before 

 it will be in a proper condition to supply the requirements of 

 growing plants? Who does not perceive, at a glance, that no sys- 

 tem of husbandry would be more ruinous to the productiveness of 

 that soil than deep plowing according to the manner alluded to? 

 How to plow deep, then, recurs again with increased interest? 

 I answer, such soil should be plowed — not with a trench plow, 

 but with a common plow, that will simply run as deep as the mold 

 extends — and this surface plowing should be followed by a regular 

 subsoil implement, that will break up and pulverize in a most 

 thorough manner the compact substratum, and leave it beneath the 

 thin layer of mold on the surface The oftener the subsoil plow 

 can be run in such ground, and the deeper it can be driven, and 

 the more thorough and perfect the substratum can be comminuted, 

 the larger will be the productive capacity of the land for raising 

 cereal grain, grass, vegetables, or any kind of fruit. The grand 

 end and aim should be to keep the humus, the vegetable mold, 

 wnen there is but a thin layer of it, on the surface. Suppose a 

 farmer, in his commendable ambition to produce a herd of beautiful 

 cattle, well developed and symmetrical in every respect, should 

 cover his pails of milk with a layer of hay, then spread a thick 

 course of straw over that hay, and say to the young calves, that 

 cannot be reared satisfactorily without milk, eat your way through 



