Proceedixgs of the Farmers' Club. 495 



While I have little fiiitli in subsoiling or trenching, I do believe 

 firmly in draining. How many thousands of the farmers of our 

 country liave low lands and swamps worse than useless, that could, by 

 proper drainage, be niade the most productive portions of their farms. 



Mr. Greeley in his 9th proposition says : 



"■ 9. Unless a small army is more effective than a large one, an empty 

 poclvet-book better than a full one, a lean crop preferable to a large 

 one, then a deep soil must be more productive than a shallow one." 



All which no one will doubt. That deej? soil is what we all want, 

 but how are we to get it ? 



The plow is a very useful implement on a farm, but it is not a 

 fertilizer. It will not make hiinius or any other of the ingredients of 

 plants. 



His -ith proposition says : 



" 4. What we advocate is not the burying of the mold or natural 

 surface soil under several inches of cold, lifeless clay, sand, or gravel. 

 If the subsoil is not to be enriched, it may better remain the subsoil ; 

 but that does not prove that it ought not to be lifted, stirred, aerated, 

 pulverized. The right thing to do is to enrich as well as mellow and 

 aerate the entire soil to a depth of fully eighteen inches ; thongh tv/elve 

 may answer for a beginning." 



The meaning of these different passages is obscure. The farmer 

 who has an '^ entire sniV^ of the depth of eighteen inches, or even 

 twelve inches, may plow either deep or shallow, and .it will make very 

 little difference ; but, excepting alluvial or drift, we never see such soils, 

 and the inference is that we should plow to the depth of the vegetable 

 mold with the ordinary plow, and loosen below with the subsoiler. 



Some years ago a considerable number of the Salem county farm- 

 ers used the subsoil plow. They all met together after having tested 

 it, and by common consent resolved that subsoiling did them no good, 

 and not one of them now uses the subsoil plow. David Pettit sub- 

 soiled thirty acres, excepting a narrow strip ; on that strip the crop 

 was the best. Other testimony, both there and elsewhere could be 

 given to the same effect. 



Farmers, as a general rule, are extremely cautious in trying new 

 things, especially if expensive. Their gains are moderate, and the 

 result of toil ; hence they risk little in experiments. But how closely 

 they do watch the experiments of others. 



I have seen subsoil plowing, and trenching for many years, and in 

 many places, but I never have seen the farmer, nor I never have seen 



