Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 223 



we come again to the question, " What is plowing ? " I will answer 

 it : Plowing is pulverizing, loosening, making mellow, and not essen- 

 tially turning over, your distinguished authority to the contrary not- 

 withstanding. Nature never contemplated having a stratum of 

 sub-soil, be it sand, or gravel, or clay, overlying a stratum of surface 

 soil, and the farmer who would have the temerity so to do, Avould do 

 it to his sorrow. 



Mr. Horace Greeley. — When I bought a piece of land and began 

 to take a practical interest in plowing, some fourteen years ago, it so 

 happened that we had a very dry year. I noticed that fields plowed 

 ten iwches deep stood the drought and produced well, while those 

 plowed to the usual depth of five inches gave poor returns. I visited 

 the Mapes farm, now cultivated, and admu'ably cultivated, by Mr. 

 Quinn. I saw twelve acres of tomatoes and as many of cabbages 

 doing well, and defying the dry weather, because the field had been 

 plowed deep. Every successive year has added to the fullness of mj 

 conviction on this subject. Some soils are an exception; but as a 

 rule, the agricultural value of American farms can be doubled by 

 plowing twice as deep as the practice now is. 



Mr. Allen. — Will Mr. Greeley tell us first what he means by the 

 word soil ? I have seen earth that came from a depth of twenty -five 

 or thirty feet, that would produce just as well as the surface. 



Mr. H, Greeley. — By soil I mean that part of the earth practically 

 useful to most of the plants we cultivate — that which is more or less 

 aired or mellowed by operations on the surface, as distinguished from 

 the gravel or hard-pan below. 



Mr. P. T. Quinn. — The farm I cultivate has been alluded to. 1 

 would say of this surface, with which I have been familiar for eighteen 

 years, that when our operations first began upon it, the soil was not 

 over three inches deej). We have been getting down little by little, 

 till now we have a soil that is from twelve to sixteen inches in depth, 

 and all alike in color and fertility. The longer I farm the more 

 importance I attach to the plow. All fine tillage depends on it. We 

 plough in the fall, leaving the surface in ridges. Then we go twice 

 over the surface in the spring. We have not gone down enough as 

 yet. I shall not cease the use of deep or sub-soil plows till I have 

 reached a depth of eighteen inches. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller. — Can we not take a lesson from garden culture ? 

 Now, what gardener thinks he has a soil on which he can depend till 

 he has carried his spade to a depth of two feet'^ Even for such 



