THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



301 



action. Other soil is in a different state, and 

 needs changing, artificially. Further along, 

 Mr. Geddes speaks of soils in this happy "na- 

 tural condition" which needs not drainage and 

 subsoiling. He says : 



In a country thoroughly underdrained to 

 the depth of three feet, and deeply subsoiled, 

 neither drouths nor excessive rains are much 

 feared by the cultivator ; a large proportion of 

 the water that falls is treasured up in his sub- 

 terranean reservoirs, and any # excess is carried 

 off by his drains. Some districts of country 

 have a soft, mellow soil, just clay enough, and 

 just sand enough to give it proper consistency, 

 and then this soil underdrained perfectly by 

 an open gravel or shelly rock. 



This is the natural condition of most of that 

 part of this State that has been denominated 

 by the geologists the "Onondaga Salt Group." 

 It is a narrow strip of land, but little observed 

 east cf Madison county. It widens westward, 

 and crosses the Niagara river at Grand Island. 

 Most of this soil is drained just enough; but 

 in some cases the shale comes so near to the 

 top of the ground that the drainage is excessive, 

 until by deep cultivation the underlying soft 

 rock has been brought to the action of the 

 frosts and atmosphere, and thus disintegrated 

 and softened down and made soil. In other 

 cases — as saucer-shaped vallies where the soil 

 has washed from the surrounding hill sides — 

 it is so deep over the shale, and made tenacious 

 of water by being packed tight in the process 

 of transportation and deposit, that draining is 

 necessary. In some localities clay predomi- 

 nates, so as to require subsoiling and draining; 

 but these are exceptions. In many other parts 

 of the State there are soils that neither re- 

 quire underdraining nor subsoil plowing, and 

 the owners of these districts should be careful 

 not to be carried off the balance of their own 

 good judgment by the reports they see of the 

 great utility of underdraining in Seneca coun- 

 ty and other places, where a tenacious soil is 

 underdrained by a tenacious rock of clay. 

 Enough has been said in the previous pages of 

 this article to show the utility of deep culti- 

 vation and thorough-draining, where it is de- 

 manded by the nature of the soil, and it was 

 thought equally necessary to warn the reader 

 against the folly of laying out money in those 

 cases where it .vould do no good. 



Mr. Geddes' farm, which, as to productive- 

 ness and permanent fertility, is one of the best 

 we ever saw, is on this formation called 'the 

 "Onondaga Salt Group.*' In repeated visits 

 which we have had the pleasure of making to 

 • we have observed the great advantages of 

 al texture of the soil to which he al- 



ludes. We invite particular attention to Mr. 

 G.'s remarks, that this, as well as some soils in 

 other districts, "neither requires underdrain- 

 ing nor subsoil plowing." The caution which 

 he interposes on this subject should be heeded 

 by all farmers who design to use their brains 

 m regulating their operations. Let deep cul- 

 tivation and thorough draining be practised 

 "where it is demanded by the nature of the 

 soil." 



In the following extract Mr. Geddes de- 

 scribes a state of things which we have fre- 

 quently witnessed. The remarks will apply 

 with special force to much of the land in the 

 western part of Vermont, along Lake Cham- 

 plain, of which our readers may recollect we 

 have lately spoken : 



Some soils do not appear to suffer from an 

 excessive supply of water, when first put un- 

 der cultivation, that afterwards require drain- 

 ing. This was the case in some parts of Onon- 

 daga county. When the soil was first put un- 

 der the plow, it was lighter and more porous 

 than it was after repeated cultivation — just as 

 earth, by being removed from a cutting, in the 

 construction of a road, to an embankment loses 

 a part of its bulk; so that it is computed by en- 

 gineers that it takes ten yards of earth, mea- 

 sured in a cutting, to make nine yards after it 

 has settled in an embankment. Whoever has 

 been engaged in the construction of post fen- 

 ces has observed this tendency of earth to pack 

 together when it is moved. It is commonly 

 said that a post can be put in the hole, and 

 then all the earth that was dug out of it can 

 be put in too. Perhaps another reason that 

 these soils when new are dry enough, and af- 

 terwards require draining, is that the cavities 

 and water courses produced by the roots of 

 trees are filled up by cultivation. 



FOOD CONSUMED BY DIFFERENT SORTS 

 OF FARM STOCK. 



In Boussingault's experiments, the average 

 daily consumption of 17 horses and mares, 

 aged from 5 to 12 years, and weighing on an 

 average 1079 lbs., was 33 lbs. of hay each, per 

 day, equal to 3.08 lbs. of hay per day to each 

 100 lbs of live weight. His milch cows weigh- 

 ing on an average 14G6 lbs., are also allowed 

 33 lbs. of hay per head per day. This gives 

 to each 100 lbs. of live weight 2.25 lbs. of ham- 

 per day. 



» As might be expected, Boussingault found 

 that 14 growing animals, from 5 to 20 months - 

 old, required more food, or 100 lbs. live weight 

 required 3.08 lbs. of hay per day. 



Boussingault estimates from his experiments 

 tlmt pigs consume an equivalent of hay per 



