Proceedings of tee Farmers' Club. 363 



alkali in bread, which he claims is not only harmless, but adds to 

 bread, biscuit, and cake the valuable elements that are removed in 

 bran by a fine bolting cloth. The acid is phosphoric, and is obtained 

 by grinding bones, and extracting the acid from bone flour. But 

 Mr. Tompkins, having tried the powder, does not like it, and wishes 

 the Club to express its opinion, or to direct a scientific examination 

 of the compound, so the very large portion of the reading commu- 

 nity that look hither as to a friend, philosopher, and guide may not 

 sit in darkness. The matter was referred to a committee consisting of 

 Professor Whitney, J. B. Lyman, and Dr. William W. Sanger. 



Deep vs. Shallow Plowing 

 Mr. David Pettit, Salem, Salem County, N. J., transmitted a lengthy 

 epistle, which in substance is as follows : He first referred to a report 

 of a committee of the Club which visited his county in the summer 

 of '67 and ''Q'^, which sustained his idea that shallow plowing was 

 as efiectual as deep plowing. He thought that many of the 

 discussions and letters received by the Club were wide of the question. 

 He thinks the question of deep and shallow plowing is an important 

 one, and if properly settled would be a great saving to the commu- 

 nity of millions of dollars' worth of machinery and unnecessary 

 labor. He wished to say that if the subsoil is richer in plant food 

 than the soil, he had not a word to utter against deep plowing ; 

 but that it would make the soil richer. But if the subsoil is poorer, 

 in plant food than the soil, plowing deeper would only make the 

 soil poorer. But where the subsoil is not richer in plant food, all 

 other circumstances being equal, I hold the opinion that the soil can 

 be improved with much less labor and expense, and be more productive 

 and more humid, and be able to maintain that humidity and pro- 

 ductiveness by plowing only five inches, and retaining all the vege- 

 table matter in those five inches, than by plowing much deeper, 

 subsoiling, &c. Where there are obstructions in the subsoil to the 

 moisture rising from below in a dry time, it may be of advantage to 

 subsoil, when it will pay. I have land in the outcropping of the 

 middle green sand marl bed, which becomes so stiff in a dry time, 

 after being pulverized like the stiff clay, that it is difficult to make a 

 pitchfork stand alone by jabbing the tines in the ground, so compact 

 that a rain of five inches has not wet the ground sufficiently for 

 plowing. This land is easily pulverized, and is productive when 

 moderately wet. We have other land here not sandy, but clayey, 



