PROCEEDrNGS OF THE FaEMEFS' ClUB. G83 



better tlion ten inclies or more. An<l I have reports from some who 

 liave taken Mr. Greeley's advice, and plowed a foot deep, and say, as 

 Dr. Ilexamer once said here, that the ground, for tlie time being at 

 least, Avas ruined. I hope that tliis t'omii]g season that farmoi-s, far 

 and wide, will make a fail- trial. If one believes in deep ],)lo\ving, try 

 a inirroA\ land jdowed shallow. If he believes in shallow ]>lowing, 

 try one strip tM'ice the deptli. Thus the practical farmer can soon 

 settle this important question. We have but little authority to settle 

 it hei-e, aiid those who have not tried both, should be more cautious 

 in advising. 



]\[r. Wm. Lawton.— Wo, of course, coidd not be expected to l>c so 

 unreasonable as not to acknowledge the vast superi(.>rity of Salem over 

 all other counties, and of iSTew Jersey over all other States. But tliere 

 is a possibility of growing weary of hearing their praises sounded liero 

 week after week, from year's end to year's end. Tliat the farmers, 

 whose practices have been again discoursed of, may get great corps on 

 their soil by shallow culture is not questioned, but to say that farmers 

 everywhere else should imitate them is to inculcate an idle and wicked 

 waste C)f words and of work. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — I traveled consideraldy over the State of 

 New Jersey last year, and in my judgment the corn crop, lai-ge as it 

 may have been in localities, was, as a whole, sliortened not a little by 

 the drouth. Now, I don't know any other sure way to get moisture in 

 a dry season than l»y going deep. True, you nuiy accomplish the 

 same result by means of irrigation, or at least to some exteiit ; and 

 if a farmer can turn a stream of sun-wai-mod water over his corn 

 field, he has less need to fear the evils of shallow plowing. But in 

 the absence of this agency, the deplorable results of the three-ijicli 

 system are sure to come, uidess in eases where the soil is of sncli 

 poroi^ formation as to permit the roots to penetrate through, the sub- 

 stratum is not disturbed. For instance, amid the general failure of 

 last year's corn crop in Yirgim'a, full r)i),00() acres producing not 

 more than five Ijusliels each, and this mostly in conse(piencc of slial- 

 low culture, I came upon some stretches which were plowed no 

 deej)cr, and yet brought fifty to seventy bushels per acre. But, mark 

 yon, these exceptional stretches were in every instance of alluvial 

 formation ; that is, so porous in their mxture as to ofi'er no obsti-uction 

 to the roots in their downward tendency. These would luive 

 gi-own good ci-ops L\\<2\\ if the sui't'ace had been sinqjly scarilicd ami 

 nothing more, just enough to allvnv the seed to germinate. The 



