Froceebings of the Farmers' Club. 613 



new system of putting in wheat by plowing twice the usual depth, 

 say ten or twelve inches, and manuring with green crop (clover) 

 where the soil was exhausted, I increased the seed to two bushels 

 per acre, and by thorough draining and top-dressing with plaster in 

 the spring, I doubled the yield per acre, and rendered the crop sure. 

 The highest average since then has been forty-three bushels, and the 

 lowest twenty-three and a half bushels to the acrjs, making a general 

 average for the whole of over thirty bushels, {Ag. Itej). 1849,^^. 20i.) 



10. JVew Jersey. — James Campbell, of Somerset county, says : In 

 the same field I had some fifteen acres of corn ; which corn-ground 

 was plowed and subsoiled twenty -two inches deep four years ago, and 

 two lands left which were not subsoiled, but in all other repects 

 treated precisely alike, and the land was all as nearly alike as possible 

 as to cpality ; and we had no rains the past summer to wet the ground, 

 plow deep until the 25tli of August ; but the subsoiled land stood 

 the drouth so that the corn scarcely twisted, while the portion which 

 was not subsoiled was nearly all dried up, My land is a sandy loam. 

 {Ag. Rep. 1852, p. 169,) 



11. Maryland. — F, C. Clapper, of Montgomery county, says : In 

 turning under each successive crop of clover the depth of the furrows 

 was increased an inch or two ; thus when two crops have been tmnied 

 imder, the average ha-s reached eight inches, and in some of the 

 valleys has extended to ten and twelve inches. Hovv' much deeper it 

 may be found advantageous to plow remains to be proved, but I 

 believe that when clover and other fertilizing substances are turned 

 under, just as deep as is plowed, so deep will be the soil, and no 

 deeper ; and, therefore, the greater the depth the greater the fertility, 

 and the greater the probability of an increased crop. 



12. Virginia. — Anderson "Wade, of Henry coimty, says : In 

 relation to plowing, by tar the most important work on the farm, I 

 will observe that every year's experience has convinced me more and 

 more of the great advantage of plowing dee^). While I would by no 

 means depreciate the utility of the various manures or other means 

 of fertilizing the soil, yet for this purpose alone '' deep plowing " is 

 invaluable, J^ot only by this means are larger quantities of the soil 

 exposed to the fertilizing action of the atmosphere, rains, dews, or 

 frost, but by imbibing the rains that tall, the soil that is plowed deep 

 retains not only what it already possesses but whatever it may gain 

 through the decomposition of vegetables, etc. It is well known to 

 those who have tried it that, if the soil be well broken to the depth 



