THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



27D 



at noon it rained a fine shower, which lasted 

 15 or 20 minutes, since we have had plenty 

 of good refresing showers. Corn and oats 

 have started to grow, and bid fair to be a 

 good crop ; wheat looks well, and bids fair 

 to be the best crop we have had for several 

 years. 



Robert A. Sherrard. 

 Jefferson Co. O. June 24th, 1850. 



SMART WEED. 



Smart weed is almost a sure remedy in 

 a case of cholic. Steep and drink the same 

 as in any other herb tea. In the next place 

 it is worth $5 per hundred for a stock of 

 cattle, if it is cut and well cured while in 

 full bloom. Give an ox, cow, or horse, 

 one pound per week, during the time they 

 are up to hay, and it will keep their bowels 

 and hide loose. It is an excellent physic. 

 If a horse has one pound a week, there is 

 no danger of his having botts or worms of 

 any kind; and they will eat it sooner than 

 they will the best of hay. — Pittsfteld Cul- 

 turist. 



From the Genesee Farmer. 

 SUB-SOILING-. 



Messrs. Editors, — Did you ever hear of 

 skinned land? If not, I will explain the 

 term, this wise: Land that has been crop- 

 ped for a long succession of years skin deep 

 i. e. worked four or five inchesdeep; the ma- 

 nures made upon the place sold each spring 

 to the neighbor paying the best price for 

 it. Just such a place ol* twenty-five acres, 

 beautifully located near our city, I have 

 recently purchased, intending to ride my 

 hobby Horticulture to my heart's content. 

 My first step was to doom to the dung cart 

 a pair of horses, who ply steadily their 

 three cords per day, consisting of stable 

 manures, leached ashes, limed hair, char- 

 coal from the rectifier's, sweepings from 

 the smith's shops, bones, old plaster, lime 

 rubbish, and last though not least, street 

 dirt. These ingredients are carefully spread 

 over the land, preparatory to the stirring 

 of the soil, to which particularly I wished 

 to draw your attention. Having purchased 

 from your townsmen Messrs. Rapalje & 

 Briggs a No. 2 Nourse & Mason sub-soil 

 plough, the novelty of the tool excited so 

 great an interest that I extended invitations 

 to some twenty practical and amateur far- 1 



mers to be present at the trial, not one of 

 whom had ever seen the operation of sub- 

 soiling. Having fully examined the nature 

 of the soil, I determined to run the first fur- 

 row with the common plough nine inches 

 deep, turning over a fine and mellow loamy 

 soil. This was followed by the sub-soil 

 plough, drawn by four oxen, eight inches 

 deeper, crumbling and rendering permea- 

 ble and light without bringing to the sur- 

 face gravel pan or other dead and inert 

 matter, but comminuting earths rich in or- 

 ganic materials, that have lain dormant 

 doubtless for ages. Here was the charm! 

 Our friends looked with delighted astonish- 

 ment—conviction flashed upon the mind — 

 perfectly satisfied of the great and impor- 

 tant results that must follow the act, in giv- 

 ing depth for roots to penetrate — in placing 

 a check upon the usual destruction by sum- 

 mer drought,and the assurance of moisture 

 at those times by capillary attraction, the 

 greater amount of heat and atmospheric 

 influences earlier in the season, with all 

 those chemical effects nature calls to her 

 aid to produce vegetable growth when re- 

 lieved by the incubus she has been weighed 

 down by. 



The land was left as light as a feather 

 bed — indeed, equal to a well trenched gar- 

 den, the surface being raised some ten or 

 twelve inches above the former level, a 

 stick easily penetrating to the full depth of 

 seventeen inches ! Is not this the great 

 and fundamental step towards rejuvinating 

 my poor skinned land % 



My farm operations are, for the season, 

 principally experimental, such as ordinary 

 ploughing of seven inches and sub-soiling 

 seventeen inches alternate strips, each 

 having the same manures, and seeding to 

 oats, corn, potatoes, &c; also, top-dressing 

 new grass land in sections, with charcoal, 

 domestic poudrette, plaster, stable manure, 

 lime rubbish, guano; besides which, I am 

 planting some one thousand additional 

 fruit trees, &c. &c. The results of these 

 various experiments I hope to detail for the 

 Farmer at a future time. 



In the draft of the sub-soil plough, we 

 exchanged the oxen for a three horse team, 

 and again to a single pair, which, by the 

 by, were fine ones, and with the exception 

 of hsird gravel pan, or plastic clay, two 

 horses worked it without severe fatigue. — 

 Three horses abreast or a heavy yoke of 

 oxen, however, make the most desirable 

 team. 



Our friends retired with the full convic- 

 tion of the utility of sub-soiling, and the 



