Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 443 



distant day, by the thrifty farmers, in the day time in fly-time, as a 

 means of keeping their stock in better condition. The usual esti- 

 mate is that one acre for soiling will go as far as two acres in pas- 

 ture. With all these resources and advantages within their reach for 

 improving their lands, it seems there can be nothing but proper en ergy 

 in the farmers wanting, with help and means sufficient, to make the 

 lands now under cultivation doubly productive. We were informed, 

 while there, that there are 70,000 acres in the county in timber or not 

 brought under cultivation. This leaves but 36,923 acres under culti- 

 vation — a little over one-third of the upland. Another third might 

 be safely brought under the plow, as the land is good and easy of 

 tillage, and then leave a third for wood. We were informed the price 

 of land is ten dollars an acre, with the value of the timber and 

 improvements added. The land being so well adapted to trucking, 

 and as that branch of farming requires much labor, it may be made 

 to maintain a dense population. 



The soil of Cape May county is entirely of the tertiary forma- 

 tion, and the subsoil being porous like the soil, it needs no 

 deep plowing or subsoiling to enable the moisture to rise from 

 below to the surface to sustain the growing crops; and the great 

 point to be attained is, in a dry time, to arrest this moisture as it 

 rises (and rise it must before it can be evaporated) and make it sub- 

 servient to the growth of crops. And as farmers have no better 

 retainer of moisture at their command than vegetable matter, 

 and as the nearer it is kept to the surface the better, where the 

 main body of the roots do naturally grow, it behooves the farm- 

 ers to apply and keep all their fertilizers as near the surface as 

 they well can for food, in order to procure the largest crops and 

 maintain their lands in the best condition ; for the poorer the 

 land is made the more and faster it will dry. Five inches is deep 

 enough to plow, under any circumstances, to produce the largest 

 crops (unless the subsoil is richer in plant food than the soil), and. 

 shallower plowing will produce more. If there are any who disbelieve 

 this let them experiment in plowing under five inches, and over six 

 inches, the more the better for a contrast, and have published the 

 results, and see which will withstand dry weather best. If plowing 

 only four inches will make better crops and improve the land faster, 

 it will besides be a greater saving of labor in team, in manual labor 

 and in farm implements, and therefore must be preferable. This can 

 be demonstrated as follows : Take for experiment a piece of new or 

 virgin soil of two inches, with five per cent humus, and plow ten 



