258 Improvement of Poor Lands by Subsoil- Ploughing. 



tumbrels per acre. After this^ part of the field was planted with 

 potatoes, part with beans, and part with peas, as experiments ; the 

 crops were moderate. The next crops were half wheat and half 

 oats ; fair crops, about 3J quarters of wheat and between 5 and 

 6 quarters of oats per acre. A similar course was pursued, with 

 variations, till within a few years, when rye-grass and clover were 

 sown with the last crop. The grasses were mown twice for hay 

 the next year. The two next years the field was pastured, chiefly 

 with sheep. 



This I consider to have completed the preparatory cultivation ; 

 and the field, when broken up, showed a manifest improve- 

 ment in the depth, colour, and texture of the soil. After that it 

 bore beans and wheat. It was then fallowed, in order to clear it of 

 the coarse natural grasses which, in spite of all this cultivation, had 

 not been entirely eradicated, and also of a considerable portion of 

 couch-grass (Triticum repens), which had increased in the soil. 

 Six acres of the field were subsoil -ploughed, early in 1838, to the 

 depth of 14 or 15 inches, by means of the Rackheath-plough, made 

 by Messrs. Ransome and Co., at Ipswich. A common swing- 

 plough (the only plough I ever use) , with two horses abreast, first 

 made a furrow of about 6 inches deep. Not having a large team, 

 I had several such furrows opened, and then the two horses, and 

 two more, who had been carting manure while the other pair wai 

 ploughing, were yoked to the Rackheath-plough, which stirred 

 the subsoil 9 or 10 inches deep. The common plough after that 

 filled up the furrows. Thus somewhat less than half an acre a-day 

 Avas subsoil-ploughed with 4 horses, the weather being very fa- 

 vourable. The land was now manured with 10 cart-loads of yard- 

 dung to the acre : one acre was planted with potatoes ; in another 

 acre, mangold-wurzel seed was drilled in rows 18 inches apart; 

 two acres were sown with Swedish turnips, and two acres with red 

 tankard turnips. The mangold-wurzel was either taken off early 

 by the fly, or failed ; and turnip-seed was drilled over it. The 

 Swedes were also sown a second time. Before Christmas there 

 was a very good appearance of Swedes and turnips ; which had 

 been properly hoed two or three times, and were clean. I con- 

 gratulated myself on the result of the experiment ; and began to 

 feed off the turnips with sheep, drawing a portion for the cows 

 at home. The winter was wet, and I was soon obliged to re- 

 move the sheep. The ground became too hollow to bear the 

 cart-wheels and the tread of the horses ; and I began to regret 

 having loosened the subsoil, which now held wet like a sponge. 

 I had never thought that the field required underdraining. The 

 water always ran off by the open drains before it was subsoil- 

 ploughed ; I might, therefore, very naturally have concluded that 

 the subsoil-plough had now ruined my land. The turnips were 



