Proceebings of the Farmers* Club. 411 



are working for our advantage as subsoilers. The effect of clover 

 roots in drawing towards the surface virtues that lie below is well 

 known. Now, let any man take a field infested with Canada thistles, 

 and after plowing them under a few times, let him put wheat on that 

 iield. The harvest will no doubt surprise him. Some have advanced 

 the seemingly wild idea that the Canada thistle is not an enemy, but 

 a friend. This much is to my mind certain : its long, tough roots, 

 piercing three or four feet into the subsoil, bring plant-food up to the 

 surface, and give the roots of the wheat a chance to run deeper than 

 they would in a field free of thistles. We talk about the drift. 

 Now, what drift ? The drift from what rocks or what formation ? 

 For instance, some years ago I dug a cellar in a hill of drift. The 

 earth and boulders were scattered all around the excavation, and had 

 a barren, repulsive look. But I plowed it and sowed oats, with a 

 very fine crop as the result. Now that drift is a mixture of the various 

 rocks all the way northeast to Labrador, or, for ought I know, to 

 Greenland. There are granite, hornblende, mica gneiss, limestone. 

 Such a subsoil is worth turning up ; and, as Mr. Lyman urges, this is 

 all a question of the character and composition of the earth which lies 

 immediately below the humus or mould. 



Mr. N. C. Meeker. — If one would raise grain crops, the soil must be 

 plowed, and deeply. As regards the use of lime, there may be some 

 ground, mostly muck, that will stand 1,000 bushels to the acre. I 

 know of an orchard that was killed by the application of 600 bushels 

 to the acre. Usually, 200 bushels will be all that land will bear. 

 . At some future time I will read a paper on this subject of deep 

 plowing, for it is not generally understood. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller said this report of Dr. Trimble's ought not to be 

 printed, as it is likely to do immense injury. People are naturally 

 lazy enough, and such a paper will confirm them in their laziness. 



Mr, E. H. Williams. — Let us have the whole subject laid before 

 the people. Many things are to be taken into account. Quicksands 

 and underlying water are to be avoided, and sunshine and air must 

 be sought as well as deptli. 



Mr. Geo. Geddes.— L read the reports of your club with great 

 interest, and I remember that a gentleman writing from Michigan 

 used a formidable argument against deep plowing, which is that when 

 earth is moved it has a tendency to pack. It is true that when 

 ground is in a natural state it is looser the oftener it is moveds It is 

 impossible to take earth out of a cut and make an embankment of 



