74.4 'rifAj\SACTlO.\S OF TJIK AmKRICAK JySTITUTB. 



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

 as Dr. Hexamer once said here, that the ejround, for the time being, 

 at least, was mined." IsTow the spirit or tlie insinuation 'of this sen- 

 tence, as most people will take it, is that, after trying Mr. CTreeley's 

 theories of deep plowing, I had found them to do more harm than 

 good, had given up deep tillage and resorted to shallow plowing. 

 As these charges, if they were true, Avould do myself a personal, 

 material and pecuniary injury, I am forced to deny them in the 

 most decided manner. Next to robbing his customers, I do not 

 know of a more serious charge against the reputation of a nurser}*- 

 man than that of accusing him of shallow tillage. Everybody knows 

 that plants grow -better in deep, loose soil than in a shallow and 

 compact one. Trees and plants from nurseries where deep tillage is 

 practiced, arc healthier, thriftier, stronger, and altogether more desir- 

 able than those grown on shallow tilled grounds ; and no sensible man 

 will, knowingly, buy plants from shallow plowed nurseries. In 

 European nurseries, where the cheapness of labor permits it, fields 

 are trenched by hand labor to the depth of three feet. In some nur- 

 series this operation has been repeated every ten or twelve years, for a 

 period of hundreds of years, to the great advantage of the proprie- 

 tors. As to the field mentioned by Dr. Trimble, it is true that by 

 plowing it in the spring of the year double the depth to which it had 

 ever been stirred before, the thin top soil became covered with a 

 thick layer of heavy clay, which could not give food to the 3;oung 

 plants, and made the field unproductive for that year. I have men- 

 tioned this fact not to discourage from deep tillage, but to impress 

 others with the importance of deepening heavy soils gradually. I 

 have given my mistakes and shortcomings with the same readiness 

 with which I have given my successes. Very often the causes of our 

 ftiilures are more instructive to others than tlie history of success. 

 This same field, however, which Dr. Trimble shows off as a warning 

 example of deep plowing, has since been plowed to a depth of sev- 

 eral inches more, it has been thoroughly mellowed and manured, 

 and is to-day the best field on Qur farm. It is the same field which, 

 when all planted with potatoes, Professor Thurber pronounced the 

 finest field of potaljoes he had ever seen. It was on this field Mr^ 

 Williams exclaimed: ''There is a surprise, indeed!" when he 

 beheld the beautiful strawberries growing upon it. On this 

 field grew many of the fine samples of potatoes, for which 

 the silver medal of the American Institute was awarded at its 



