1515, 516, 517J subsoiling — lois weedon system. 249 



superior fertility, we shall thus have, in matter of fact, a fresh soil. We can. 

 readily exhaust this soil in its turn, by the same mode of culture ; and then, if 

 our subsoiling has reached as deep as agricultural implements can conveniently 

 go on the large scale, we shall have no further remedy but a regular system of 

 manuring. Subsoiling, therefore, in connection with fallowing, may serve to 

 correct the physical condition of our soil, and to increase the duration of natural 

 fertility; but it is not by any means a permanent safeguard against exhaus- 

 tion, which will inevitably arrive sooner or later, unless we restore to the soil, 

 from an independent source, the ingredients which we have withdrawn. 



515. Tullian, or Lois Weedon System. — It is true that a regular system of 

 subsoiling and fallowing combined, will in many cases sustain the productive- 

 ness of soils without sensible diminution, for a considerable length of time — 

 sufficient to convince of its unceasing efficacy, those who imagine that the 

 experience of a ^vf years, or even of a decennium or two, can decide positively 

 as to t ie merits of a system of Agriculture. We can readily prove a negative 

 in a short time ; if a thirty years culture without rotation or manure renders 

 our land incapable of producing cotton, the proof that our system is wrong is 

 plain enough. But if some of our land remains productive beyond that period, 

 it certainly does not prove that the system is correct, and that under it our land 

 will last forever. Yet such, precisely, is the logic of some modern agricultural 

 writers, on the subject just in hand. The system of deep and thorough tillage 

 and fallowing, which, a century and a half ago, was devised by Tull, and during 

 a considerable period, sustained its reputation as a panacea against the exhaus- 

 tion of soils, until time proved its insufficiency, has lately been brought back to 

 as in a new guise, and upon the (as is contended) irrcfragible proof afforded by 

 a success of twelve years (.'), is proclaimed to us as a full and sufficient remedy 

 for the growing and threatening evil. We are told that we must retrace our 

 steps, and unlearn what the bitter experience of centuries has taught us — all 

 for the twelve years experiment at Lois Weedon ! It is nothing to the enthu- 

 siastic, but short-sighted proselytes of this system, that its temporary results 

 are foreseen and well understood in the science of agriculture ; it is nothing to 

 them, that the system supposed to be infallible for centuries — that of cattle- 

 raising for the sake of manure — has at last been found wanting, and has buried 

 in its ruins more than one agricultural commonwealth in the old world. And 

 not a small amount of so-called, half-understood " science" is brought to bear on 

 the subject; notwithstanding that, in the same breath, science is denounced as 

 mntrustworthy, and its results, the sum of all experience, declared to be obsolete. 



516. Subsoiling and fallow combined, as in the "Lois Weedon System," will 

 help us to eke out a certain percentage of deficiency in the replacement, by 

 manure, of the ingredients withdrawn : and it is not unlikely, that with crops 

 as slightly exhaustive as cotton, when the seed and stalk areretured (1J490, ff.), 

 several generations might not feel the want of manure, in soils of good native 

 fertility. But if we regard it otherwise than as a safety-valve or regulator, by 

 which we may render insensible the accidental variations in the regular compen- 

 sation, and to which we may resort in a " rainy day "; if we violently appro- 

 priate to ourselves in a short time, all that portion of the fertility of the soil 

 which the fallow could develop with useful rapidity : then we shall arrive 

 precisely at the point to which the excessive use of lime or guano brings us, 

 which " enriches the father, but impoverishes the son." 



517. Drainage has already been mentioned as being somewhat analogous in 

 Ms action to subsoiling (1[409), though it carries with it numerous other 

 advantages. But however valuable as an improvement, and especially as 

 protecting the crops against the vicissitudes and accidents of the seasons, it 

 cannot, any more than rotation, subsoiling or fallowing, prevent the exhaustion 

 of the soil. It is true that, if we look only to the direct experience on lands 

 artificially thorough-drained (which has not been very lengthy), numerous 

 instances might be quoted in which the good effects at first experienced, still 



