254 



The RackheatJi Siihsoil-Ploiig/i. 



so extensive a topic, to be led away from my present subject, 

 " Tlie Plough. " Well, on my coming to reside on my estate at 

 Racklieatli, about six years since, I found 500 acres of lieatli- 

 land, composing two farms, (which had been enclosed under 

 an Act of Parliament about 40 years,) without tenants ; the 

 gorse, heather, and fern shooting up in all parts. In short, the 

 land was in such a condition that the crops returned not the 

 seed sown. The soil was a loose loamy soil, and had been 

 broken up by the plough to a depth not exceeding four inches, 

 beneath which was a sub-stratum (provincially called an iron 

 pan), so hard that with difficulty could a pick-axe be made to 

 enter in many places, and my bailiff, who had looked after the 

 lands for 35 years, told me that the lands were not worth culti- 

 vation — that all the neighbouring farmers said the same thing — 

 and that there w\as but one thing to be done, viz., to plant with 

 fir and forest-trees ; but to this I paid but little attention, as I 

 had the year preceding allotted some parcels of ground taken out 

 of the adjoining lands to some cottagers; to each cottage about 

 one-third of an acre. The crops on all these allotments looked 

 fine, healthy, and good, producing excellent wheat, carrots, peas, 

 cabbages, potatoes, and other vegetables in abundance. The 

 question then was, how was this done ? On the outside of the 

 cottage allotments all was barren. It could not be by the ma- 

 nure that had been laid on, for the cottages had none but that 

 which they had scraped from the roads. The magic of all this I 

 could ascribe to nothing else but the spade ; they had broken up 

 the land 18 inches deep. As to digging up 500 acres with the 

 spade to the depth of 18 inches, at an expense of 6/. an acre, I 

 would not attempt it. I accordingly considered that a plough might 

 be constructed so as to loosen the soil to the depth of 18 inches, 

 keeping the best soil to the depth of 4 inches, and near the sur- 

 face, thus admitting air and moisture to the roots of the plants, 

 and enabling them to extend their spongioles in search of food — 

 for air, moisture, and extent of pasture are as necessary to the 

 thriving and increase of vegetables as of animals. In this attempt 

 I succeeded, as the result will show. I have now broken up all 

 these 500 acres 18 inches deep; the process was by sending a 

 common plough, drawn by two horses, to precede, which turned 

 over the ground to the depth of 4 inches : my subsoil-plough 

 immediately followed in the furrow made, drawn by four horses, 

 stirring and breaking the soil 12 or 14 inches deeper, but not 

 turning it over. Sometimes the iron pan was so hard that the 

 horses were set fast, and it became necessary to use the pick-axe 

 to release them before they could proceed. After the first year 

 the land produced double the former crops, many of the carrots 

 being 16 inches in length, and of a proportionate thickness. This 



