Jbarming of Oxfordshire- 
271 
rare in this county, there can be no reason for surprise at the 
circumstance that draininoj often proves insufficient and fails to 
achieve its object. Let any one think when he sees five great 
horses in a line ploughing a heavy clay, how well those ponderous 
feet knead and pound the waxy subsoil. No wonder, when such 
land is never ploughed more than 4 inches deep, that the subsoil" 
is impervious, and that the surface tliough soon wet, is also 
easily affected by drought. Subsoiling should be added to 
drainage, and on the clays of this county is more indispensably 
necessary. One without the other is comparatively useless ; 
both combined seldom fail to ensure complete success. It is 
only in the summer that the subsoil plough should be used. 
The land may be ploughed deeply the third time again across 
the ridges and drains, the common plough being followed by the 
subsoiler. This should not turn the subsoil over, but merely 
stir it, as the quality is seldom good enough to mix with the top 
soil. All this must be done in dry weather, as the subsoil 
plough should tear up the soil, not cut through it. After a turn 
or two with a scarifier and harrows, the field in a fine season 
ought to be clean and dry. It has been supposed that the land 
is in poor heart, and probably this will be the only ground fit 
for wheat on the farm. It should receive a good dressing of 
long farmyard manure, and after this has been lightly ploughed 
in, two bushels of wheat may be drilled. The wheat may be 
followed by clover or beans, or come in for a green crop, as the 
circumstances of the farm dictate. It must be borne in mind 
that all the operations just described must be done in fine weather. 
No clay' land, however well drained, should be ploughed, carted 
on, or trodden when wet. The soil is puddled, and the drains 
almost cease to act. Although it may be very easy to write 
directions for cleaning stiff soils, nothing can be done properly in 
a summer like that of 1852 or 1853. 
Tiie object of a summer's fallow is to clear the land of annual 
and perennial weeds, to rest it when over-cropped, to pulverise 
it by exposing it to the sun and air, and to alter its condition by 
chalking, burning, or manuring it. When land is made fine, 
rain displaces the air held in the soil ; and when the moisture is 
all gone, it receives a fresh supply of air. This increases the 
power of the soil to absorb and retain moisture, which assists in 
decomposing its animal and vegetable matter. The soluble 
potash of pure clays is speedily removed by crops that grow on 
it. Fallowing is resorted to, and by exposing fresh and minute 
particles of the soil to the action of the atmosphere, a new supply 
of soda and potash is obtained. By stifle-burning the clay the 
same change is effected in a feio hours that takes months of 
fallowing to produce. There is nothing like a summer's fallow 
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