6t8 Transactioks of the American Institute. 



portion gravely, on the more level portion clayey. With shallow 

 plowing, no stock, no manure, and the ruinous system of farming to 

 which it liad been subjected, the average of wheat per acre was about 

 six bushels. I have been plowing seven or eight inches instead of 

 three or four, keeping all the stock it will bear and applying all the 

 manure to the land j^lowed, and ploAving none without giving it a 

 portion of barn-yard manure, and to seed down to clover just as soon 

 » as the soil is in proper condition for it. The result has been an aver- 

 age of twenty bushels wheat per acre ; oats, thirty ; corn, forty-iive 

 to fifty. I attribute tliis result to the deep plowing more than to any 

 other cause. 



Mr. Charles A. Eggert, Iowa city, Iowa, says : In regard to deep 

 tillage, allow me to offer a remark or two. Many writers, etc., who 

 favor deep tillage fail to admit that all tliat is to be attained by deep 

 plowing, trenching, etc., has sometimes already been done by natnre 

 herself. Mr. Snow, of Michigan, refers to the practice of sowing 

 Yheat in the timbered land by simply harrowing it in, as a proof 

 that deep plowing is not reqnired to secure large crops. lie evidently 

 overfooks the palpable fact that in timliered land the roots of the 

 trees have already most perfectly done what the plow would only 

 less perfectly do in prairie soil. 



The principal advantages of deep plowing are in the fact, that 

 deeply plowed land is more open to the influence of the atmosphere; 

 that it is sooner warmed in spring, and retains its warmth later in the 

 fall ; that it has better drainage and more capacity of retaining 

 .moisture; and that it enables the roots of plants to enter the soil 

 more readily, and to accommodate themselves to the conditions of 

 drouth or severity of seasons. 



All these advantages are possessed by a timber soil, especially after 

 the roots of the tre^s have decayed in some degree. This is very 

 apparent in the entire western country, where the timber and prairie 

 alternate. Tlie principal reason why so many of our fruit trees in 

 the west thrive in timber soil and get Avinter killed on the prairie, is, 

 because in the former an equivalent of deep plowing exists, while, 

 until recently, plantations of fi-uit trees on the prairies were made 

 on imperfectly prepared soil. At present, deep tillage of the praii-ie 

 soil is generally conceded to guarantee the very best success of fruit 

 and other culture. 



