Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
57 
subsoil ; jet by constantly ploughing deeper, the action of the sun, 
air, and frost have made it, in appearance and texture, like that 
of the surface soil. Yet if we split these lands down so as to get 
them level, we are told the present furrows would become too 
strong : this could only be done by the staple or surface soil 
being made so much deeper by the plough. What can more 
clearly or convincingly convey to any reflecting mind the great 
advantages of deep ploughing on heavy land than this very fact — 
for I admit such would be the result — that it would be stronger in 
the old furrows? But I would soon endeavour to make the pre- 
sent heading or gathering as good, by deep ploughing and the 
application of manure. I am confident the advantages of 
ploughing deep on this description of soil are incalculable ; it 
deepens the staple, it more readily drains the soil, and affords 
better nourishment for plants. I well recollect, in my early days, 
that the green sides of a heavy clay lane, abutting upon my 
father's property in Suffolk, were dug off at three different periods, 
until at last nothing was left but the tough tenacious clay subsoil. 
A few years afterwards, several of his labourers living in his 
cottages near the spot, asked his consent, and obtained permission, 
to enclose this land for gardens. A quick was planted, the land 
divided into allotments, and although, poor fellows, they had 
nothing but solid clay to commence operations in, by thorough 
draining it and deep digging (for then they double-dug, or 
trenched it), with the application of manure, and good and deep 
culture, these allotments are now as fine gardens as I wish to see, 
producing everything very early in the season, and full also of 
thrifty and growing fruit-trees. On these high-back lands, I con- 
tend that the gathering up, or centre of each land, by not having 
been exposed to the action of sun or air for centuries, has become 
dead, inert clay ; yes, even that portion which was the original 
surface soil : and I prove it thus ; — by digging across lands of this 
description, I have always found the soil lying in the following 
manner : — 
Sect ion rf Ends of Lands lying on high Backs. 
1. Present surface soil. 
2- Land gathered up above original level of surfaee soil, now become, to a certain extent, dead 
inert clay. 
3. Hollow drain up the middle of old furrows. 
The middle portion of the land now gathered up above the 
original level of surface soil is now found, a certain portion of the 
centre, to have become dead inert clay, from having lain for cen- 
