412 Transactions of the American Institute. 



prepare a seed-bed. All other objective purposes are falsely assumed. 

 Plowing, for instance, is never done with a view to draining or 

 lowering the height of the water in the soil; this it cannot do. The 

 level of the water is not disturbed by the deepest plowing. This 

 idea never enters the head of a farmer ; it exists only in that 

 of an impracticable theorist, and yet we often hear of it. When 

 seed is sown it needs at certain depth beneath the surface a 

 receptacle of soft, finely pulverized earth, in which it can ger- 

 minate and grow, and which is easily penetrable by the young 

 and tender roots. The loose earth, easily permeable by the 

 warmth of the sun and the moist air, forms just such a seed-bed 

 as the plants need to grow and thrive in. Nothing farther is needed 

 to be done by the plow. If the plowing is perfect, this has been 

 perfectly done, and the needs of the plant provided for. It can take 

 care of itself as soon as the first growth occurs. We do not plow 

 to make a place for the plant to complete its growth in ; this would 

 be beyond the power of the deepest running plow yet dreamed of. 

 Plants push their roots far into the subsoil in search of nutriment, 

 and, strange to say, the farther they penetrate into that region, never 

 reached by the plow, the finer and more delicate they are, and the 

 least able, 'it would seem, to penetrate the compact soil. Compact soil, 

 I have said ; but it is not compact, at least as we understand the 

 term. In digging post-holes four feet deep, I have often had to 

 bring soil from a distance, to completely fill the hole after the post 

 has been set. The earth dug out of the hole has not been sufficient 

 to fill it again when packed, even though the post has been set in it, 

 and of course has taken up considerable room. The soil in its ordi- 

 nary state, then, is not compact, but sufficiently open in texture to 

 admit the passage of roots. Always there is a crust formed by the 

 continued pressure of the plow sole which needs breaking up, and 

 therefore we use a subsoil plow, or an attachment to a common 

 plow, for that purpose only. But clover roots have been traced to 

 a depth of fourteen feet, and in one of the experiments of Mr. 

 Lawes, on his experimental plots at Rothampstead, in England, he 

 found the roots of grass occupying the first six inches of soil, in a 

 perfect mat ; while at a depth of forty inches, roots were found which 

 were as fine as the film of a spider's web. We plow, therefore, only 

 to procure such a seed-bed as we need for the first growth of the 

 plant, and for no other purpose, and in plowing, this object only must 

 be considered. 



Lastly, what is the nature of the soil we plow ? This is a point 



