1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



207 



just touch. If too wide apart, moisture cannot 

 act with the oxygen. If we examine a pile of 

 round iron balls, we find rust only where the balls 

 touch. The great object of cultivation, in its me- 

 chanical sense, was to pulverize the ground into 

 as many small surfaces as possible, and then to 

 provide for a continued current of ffesh air and 

 moisture through it. 



Mr. Satterthwait said some soils could be 

 injured by pulverizing too much. The particles 

 would grind so very fine, that neither air nor 

 moisture could go through. 



Judge Knox agreed with Mr. Satterthwait. 

 Soils that, in common language, "bake," do so 

 through a tendency to this over fine pulverization. 



Mr. W. Saunders, also, inclined to this view. 

 Yet thought no one could go wrong if he knew 

 his object. If we want air and moisture in the 

 soil, and if it is too heavy for it, pulverize ; but if 

 the other extreme, pulverization, which when wet 

 makes mud, obstructs air and moisture — stop the 

 practice. With a clear object one could not go 

 wrong. One might say, manure was good for 

 soils ; but if we wanted leaf growth and succulen- 

 cy, as in the cabbage, we wanted one kind and 

 quality ; but if we wanted sound wood and fruit, 

 as in the orchard, manure is quite another ques- 

 tion. 



In answer to a question, Mr. Saunders added, 

 that his rule for covering seeds, was to regulate it 

 by the seed. A seed £ inch in diameter, to re- 

 ceive a i inch of covering ; J inch, & of soil, and 

 so of all others. 



INFLUENCE OF THE ATMOSPHERE ON 

 THE SOIL. 



The following paragraphs contain a portion of 

 the remarks made by members of the Concord 

 Farmers' Club, upon the influences which the at- 

 mosphere exerts upon the soil and crops. The 

 discussion was an exceedingly interesting one, and 

 showed that the members had formed habits of 

 investigation, observation and inquiry. 



Minot Pratt did not undertake to prove that 

 the atmosphere has an influence on the soil, but 

 took it for granted that the fact would be gener- 

 ally acknowledged. An observing man can hard- 

 ly fail to see that some effect is produced ; but 

 Jioic it is done is not easily discovered by the un- 

 learned. Possibly the learned themselves might 

 be somewhat puzzled to explain all the phenom- 

 ena. But taking it for granted that a beneficial 

 influence is exerted, it becomes of importance to 

 know how to derive advantage from it — how to 

 bring the air and soil most intimately in contact. 

 Every one must have noticed the good effects re- 

 sulting from the frequent hoeing of crops in sum- 

 mer, beyond the mere destruction of weeds. This 

 is more apparent in dry seasons. All crops will 

 stand a drought much better for having the soil 

 thoroughly stirred once a week. This stirring 

 undoubtedly tends to make the surface soil dryer, 

 for evaporation will go on more rapidly in a loose 

 than in a compact soil in a hot, sunshiny day. 

 But the indisputable fact remains that the corn 

 growing in the stirred soil will stand up with its 

 leaves all spread out, even in light, sandy soil, 

 while at the same time, in another field, where 

 the soil has not been so stirred, every leaf will be 



rolled up. This is sometimes accounted for by 

 supposing that the loosened soil is more capable 

 of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere dur- 

 ing the night, but he thinks that the heated sur- 

 face can hardly take in«at night so much as the 

 sun and the plant draw out in the day ; so that 

 the benefit is to be considered rather as the result 

 of some chemical action of the air on the salts 

 and organic substances in the soil by which these 

 elements are made both victuals and drink for the 

 growing plants. Benefits follow these stirrings 

 at other times than when parched up with drought. 

 The air being more freely admitted into the finely 

 pulverized earth, promotes a rapid decomposition 

 of the vegetable matter which it contains, so that 

 wherever the roots penetrate they find suitable 

 food and "an abundant supply of the oxygen of 

 the atmosphere to aid in preparing it." In all 

 soils there are also fragments of rock, which, as 

 they crumble and decay, yield fresh supplies of 

 inorganic food for plants. This decomposition of 

 the rocks is hastened by exposure to the air. 

 One old writer on agriculture was so confident of 

 the benefits to be derived from frequent plowing s, 

 that he believed land might thus be kept in undi- 

 minished fertility for an indefinite series of years, 

 without the application of any manure, and he 

 actually reaped twelve successive crops of wheat, 

 the last equally as good as the first, from the same 

 land, the only fertilizers used being the plow aud 

 horse-hoe. One of the good effects of draining 

 is supposed to be that, by drawing off the water 

 which saturates the soil, the air is more freely ad- 

 mitted, by which some of the noxious portions of 

 the soil and subsoil are so changed in their char- 

 acter as to become harmless, or even beneficial. 

 Much of this noxious matter is also washed out 

 by the descending rains, and carried off. 



This suggests that pei'haps the cause of the 

 failure to derive benefit from subsoiling and deep 

 spading, as related at the last meeting, would have 

 been removed by a previous thorough draining. 

 In well drained land, there is, of course, no stand- 

 ing water filling the pores of the soil ; this settles 

 into the drains and is carried away, leaving room 

 for the air to enter, and do its work. Whenever 

 rain falls it enters the soil, and more or less dis- 

 places the air. But as the water sinks, the fresh 

 air again enters, and is in this way renewed by 

 every fall of rain. And even in long continued 

 dry weather, there is, without doubt, a circulation 

 of air kept up in the soil, by means of changes 

 of temperature, which rarify and condense the 

 fluid, and thus keep it in motion. When by these 

 means the removal and change of noxious matters 

 in the soil has been effected, it would be safer to 

 increase the depth of plowing, in most soils. 



Dr. Reynolds said he understood that aera- 

 tion of the soil was included in the subject as well 

 as the chemical and fertilizing effects of atmos- 

 phere on soil. Indeed they must go together, for 

 without bringing the particles of the soil into con- 

 tact there could be no chemical action. One ef- 

 fect of draining is to admit air in the place of wa- 

 ter. This renders the soil porous and light, and 

 enables the gases given off in the soil, by the de- 

 composition of manurial substances to permeate 

 through the soil, like the carbonic acid gas from 

 yeast in bread, and keeps the soil light, so that 

 roots can traverse it in search for nutriment. 

 Without the presence of the oxygen of the at- 



