194 ALFALFA FARMING IN AMERICA. 
Plowing, like the tariff, is ‘‘a local matter,’’ so 
each farmer had better test the thing for himself. 
On his own soil deep plowing may not work so well. 
It is easily tested on a small scale in any event. 
Subsoiling—aA subsoil plow is one that merely 
runs in the furrow and loosens up the underlying 
soil. It does not bring any of it up to the surface. 
Subsoiled land has much greater water-holding ca- 
pacity than before it was subsoiled. Sometimes this 
fact is a detriment, if the land is poorly drained. 
It is difficult to subsoil land that has in it boulders 
or large stones. Subsoiled land erodes less than 
other land, because the water sinks readily into the 
subsoil and there is thus a great reservoir of satu- 
rated earth which in turn gives moisture to the over- 
lying soil. In all hilly regions where there is dan- 
ger of erosion, as in east Tennessee, subsoiling has 
been found to be a more useful practice. 
Not so much work has been done in subsoiling 
for alfalfa as should be done. I have only done 
such subsoiling as I described in the ditching work 
done on Woodland Farm. That has convinced 
me, however, that some day much land will in some 
way be loosened up here and the yield of alfalfa 
be increased at least 25%, and probably more. 
On the Rappahannock River, in Virginia, J. F. 
Jack has tested subsoiling in a limited way and the 
result has been very markedly good. In truth sub- 
soiling tested alongside of additional fertilization 
gave markedly superior results. Other men have 
related to me their experiences with subsoiling, but 
