THE SOUTHERN PLANTER, 



IBeboteti to gtortculture, $%®iUzu\tuvz, antt the ^ouseholt* im. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 



Xenophon. 



Vol. V. 



SUBSOIL PLOUGHING. 



Amongst the agricultural discoveries of mo- 

 dern times, none perhaps deserves to rank higher 

 than the invention of the subsoil plough. The 

 value of this implement will, it is true, vary 

 much with the nature of the earth to which it 

 is applied, but in most situations we believe it 

 to be one of the cheapest and most efficient 

 means of improving the soil. It is a happy ex- 

 pedient by which all the old opposition to deep 

 ploughing is at once removed. By this means 

 the earth can be stirred and mellowed to a great 

 depth, whilst the shallow mould upon the sur- 

 face is kept where it is most desirable to retain 

 it. If any farmer is so green as to ask, what 

 is the use of breaking up the soil below, we 

 answer, that it is only pulverized earth that at- 

 tracts and retains moisiure ; if a few inches be- 

 low the surface j^ou have a compact puddled 

 clay, into which the roots of plants can never 

 penetrate, when the exhausting heat of the sum- 

 mer sun has evaporated the moisture, as it will 

 do for several inches, what is to support the 

 plant ? Oh ! then we have a drought, as it is 

 called ; but if you will permit the roots to pene- 

 trate fifteen or twenty inches into your subsoil, 

 and they will gladly avail themselves of the 

 opportunity, they will then find inexhaustible 

 supplies of moisture in which they may revel, 

 secure from the withering rays of the fiery sun, 

 which seek in vain to penetrate their storehouse ; 

 far beyond his reach they laugh the sun to 

 scorn, and whilst they avail themselves of all 

 his genial influences, they rob him of his terrors. 

 As cleanliness has expelled the once dreaded 

 plague from modern Europe, so may the prac- 

 tice of subsoiling forever expel the demon of 

 drought from the fields of the intelligent farmer. 



But the prevention of drought is by no means 

 all the benefit to be derived from the practice of 

 subsoil ploughing. Beneath that portion of the 

 earth's surface which has been subjected to cul- 

 tivation, lies a virgin soil, possessed of different 

 but unexhausted, and frequently, very valuable 

 Vol. V.— 19 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 

 State. — Sully. 



No. 7. 



mineral properties. It. sometimes happens that 

 this soil in its primitive state, is very inimical to 

 vegetation, but when freely operated upon by the 

 atmosphere it undergoes chemical changes that 

 assimilate it to the most productive of the virgin 

 soils that are found upon the surface. To this 

 operation of the atmosphere these slumbering 

 stores of fertilization are exposed by the break- 

 ening and loosening effect of the subsoil plough. 

 After the subsoil has been thus regenerated by 

 the admission of the atmosphere into its bosom, 

 it may be turned up with the greatest advantage, 

 and gradually converted from sub to surface soil. 

 In this way, not only will valuable mineral in- 

 gredients be eventually brought to the surface, 

 where without injury they may be exposed still 

 farther to the ameliorating influence of the at- 

 mosphere, but it also not unfrequently happens 

 that into this subsoil has been filtered the salts 

 of much vegetable manure applied to the upper 

 surface. 



This is a very pretty theory, says the practi- 

 cal farmer, but what are the facts'? The facts 

 are numerous and incontrovertible. Since the 

 statements made by Mr. Smith, of Deanston, to 

 the Agricultural Committee of the English 

 House of Commons in 1836, of the result of his 

 experiments in the use of the subsoil plough, 

 this great improvement, has been gradually pro- 

 gressing, and we believe, if not the most bril- 

 liant, it. is yet destined to be esteemed the most 

 valuable discovery of the nineteenth century. — 

 From time to time, we have recorded the most 

 authentic statements of the wonderful effect of 

 this process, and yet how few comparatively 

 have systematically adopted it. We remember 

 that last year we saw at the farm of Mr. Joseph 

 Sinton, near this city, one of the finest crops of 

 turnips we ever beheld. Mr. Sinton estimated 

 that it would yield him double as much as he 

 had ever gathered from the same quantity of 

 land before, and this excess he attributed solely 

 to a small subsoil plough that he had used in 

 their cultivation; and a few days since we 



C. T. BOTTS, Editor. 

 RICHMOND, JULY, 1845. 



