PLOWING THE SOIL. 193 
soil on Woodland Farm the top soil is rather poor 
in lime, leached away vy the erosion of centuries 
of rain. Down about 16” are many limestone peb- 
bles. Could these be thrown up by the plow the 
result would be the same as a heavy liming—be 
better, in truth. How do we know this? By the be- 
havior of land that has been tile drained. Where 
the ditches are dug the subsoil is mixed with the 
top soil—in fact in filling the subsoil is usually left 
on top—and there will grow the best alfalfa with- 
out question. Even in a dry year the effect is very 
marked, the narrow strip of land where the tile ditch 
stood sending up alfalfa like a ridge, often 12 or 
more inches taller than the rest of the field. The 
effect is more marked on a dry year than on a wet 
one, so it can not be attributed to the effect of 
underdrainage altogether. 
We have found that with a large common break- 
ing plow we could go down 10” easily enough, if 
the land was not too moist nor too dry. After that 
a smaller plow can follow and go 4” or 5” deeper. 
Not much of this last soil will be thrown clear of 
the furrow, but it will become well mixed through 
with the top soil. Woodland Farm has only be- 
gun experimentation along this line, but we are 
quite well persuaded that by the time the reader 
sees these lines we will have abundant proof of the 
great use of this deep plowing. We are ready to 
advise only in fairly fertile soils, especially if the 
subsoil has more lime than the surface, a depth of 
plowing of 12” or 16” or as deep as you can go. 
