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The best time to subsoil land for viticultural purposes is at the end 

 of the autumn, when the first rains have sufficiently softened the 

 soil to render the operation possible. This presents the great advan- 

 tage of exposing the newly-broken land to the action of air, rain, 

 frost, &c., during the whole of the winter preceding the planting, thus 

 rendering it loose and sweetening it in a considerable degree. 



Before proceeding to subsoil, the land should be thoroughly cleared, 

 all trees and bushes being removed, and roots run to the depth of at 

 least 18 inches or 2 feet. Any live trees should be ring-barked 

 during the early summer; they will be dead by the time subsoiling is 

 to be commenced, and will send up no suckers. They may be pulled 

 out with a Forest Devil, or one of the numerous appliances used for 

 this purpose, after the soil round the roots has been loosened. All 

 rubbish should be burned on the ground itself, the ashes, containing a 

 considerable amount of potash, forming a valuable manure. 



The best way to subsoil land is with a double-furrow plough 

 specially made for the purpose, the second or front mouldboard of 

 which has been removed and replaced by the subsoiler which 

 consists of a curved bar of iron so arranged as to be capable 

 of being raised or lowered by a lever, and carrying an ordinary 

 plough-share at its lower extremity or terminating in a 

 broad point like the chisel tooth of a scarifier. An ordinary plough 

 opens up a furrow to the depth of 8 inches or so, then the subsoil 

 plough can be started, the subsoiler engaging in the furrow already 

 opened, and stirring the soil to the required depth, whilst the shear 

 and mouldboard open up a fresh one in which the subsoiler will work 

 on the second round, and so on. 



In moderately stiff soils five horses ought to be able to subsoil an 

 acre per day to a depth of 18 inches. 



If the ground has not been thoroughly freed from roots, or there 

 are stones which interfere with the progress of the plough, it will be 

 better to substitute for the above two single ones, which follow each 

 other in the same furrow, the second one being without a mould- 

 board. Any stoppage of one of them will not interfere with the 

 working of the other. 



In order to trench the soil, the best way is to employ an ordinary 

 plough to go first and open the furrow to as great a depth as possible, 

 and follow up in the same furrow with a trench plough with a high 

 mouldboard capable of raising the soil to the surface. 



