VoL. L 
AUGUSTA, Ga., OCTOBER 11, 1843. 
No. 21. 
From the Transactions of th N. Y. State Agr. Society 
SUBSOILING- SUBSOIL PLOWS. 
ByC. N. Bement. Albany. 
Heretof tre the fanners ot this country have 
cuiiivalea a soil enriched ibr ages by the yearly 
addition of a liesh stratum of mould. From 
the iii'sl existence of vegetation upon the dry 
land, decayed plants, leaves, &c., have continu- 
ally furnished a supply of manure, which tiie 
winds and rains have liberally spread abroad. 
As liie supply was annually greater than the 
consumption, the eartn, unexhausted by its pro- 
ductions, increased in lertility. The thick lay- 
ers of vegetable mould which covered the face 
of the earth, was a storehouse of food for plants, 
and this quality increased by ihe conversion ot 
wood into ashes by clearing. It is not wonder- 
ful, then, that for some years newly cleared set- 
tlements should abound in produce and require 
little more labor than that of plowing and reap- 
ing; for during this period the provision isw'a.st- 
ing which for centuries had oeeu accumulating. 
But the time will come, and indeed has already 
come in many sections, where the soil has been 
exhausted, and is took weak of itself to make 
plants grow with their former luxuriance. The 
grand question now pfe.sents itseli, “how shall 
this soil be renovated and brought back to its 
former richness and fertility?” My answer 
would be, by breaking the under crust, opening 
and stirring the subsoil, by which means it .so 
alters and disposes the earth in which plants are 
rooted, that the radigals shoot more easily and 
more extensively through it, or in other words, it 
becomes a better filterer for .straining and ap- 
plying nourishment to their inhaling or absorb- 
ing vessels. 
It IS a well established fact or axiom in agri- 
culture, that the deeper the soil is, the more fa- 
vorable will it be for ihe purposes ol cultiva- 
tion. To produce this desideratum, several 
plans have been adopted, either by thoroughly 
trenching with the spade, or by the use of the 
sub-soil plow. Air and water are chief instru- 
ments which nature makes use of to enrich the 
earth. 
It is by close attention to passing events that 
any desired object can ever be obtained. As far 
as experiments have been made, we find the 
earth liberally affording its produce in tenfold 
quantity, and the land that now supports an 
hundred inhabitants, may aive equal enjoyment 
to a thousand. But in this stage a well manag- 
ed farm m..st be carried on with more labor, 
more expense, and more exact skill. The most 
profitable system of culture is that which pays 
the greatest per cent on the money laid out in 
cultivation, while the land is yearly increasing 
in its productive power^, is a truth which no 
one will attempt to deny. 
I have, for the last four or five years, had my 
attention directed, by reading in the agricultural 
journals, to the great benefits derived Iromsub- 
sqil plowing in England and Scotland, and have 
felt very anxious to obtain an implement for the 
purpose. For the last three or four years I have 
been making some experiments with merely an 
apology for a subsoil plow, as it only penetrated 
about five inches below the bottom of the fur- 
row of the common plow, and the share was 
thin, flat, and only three inches wide at the 
broadest part; still, with this simple, and I might 
almost say, inefficient machine, I could see a 
very perceptible difference in the appearance of 
the crop, especially in a drouth. In 1841, I 
made an experiment in a field of corn, a part of 
which I subsoiled with my skeleton or apology 
for a subsoil plow, stirring the under soil only to 
the depth of five inches; in that part of the field 
where the under crust had been broken, the corn 
maintained a healthful, dark color, while that 
adjoinins:, which had not been stirred with the 
skeleton plow, turned yellow, leaves curled and 
looked sickly. In fact, the difference was so 
great that it was noticed by those passing, al- 
though some distance from the road. 1 also 
tried it for my carrots and beets, with the same 
decided effect. I have tried it on a stiff loam, 
and on soil inclining to sand, with equal suc- 
cess. This I was not prepared for, as 1 suppos- 
ed .such soils would not be benefited by the ope- 
ration; but on examination, I found the subsoil, 
which had not been reached by the common 
plow, very compact, and nearly as hard as a 
beaten track on the surface. 
As for myself, and Irom m}’’ own experience, 
I entertain not a doubt of the utility of deep 
plowing; not, however, by turning up the under 
soil, hut by following in the lurrow made by 
the first plow, with a real subsoil plow, which, 
if properly constructed, pulverises and stirs the 
earth from twelve to fourteen inches. Indian 
corn, and all tap-rooted plants, in such a mass 
of loosened earth, would not, I am confident, 
suffer much by an ordinary drouth. Like a 
sponge, it would absorb a vast quantity of rain 
7 'ater, and beco ue a reservoir to supply the 
wants of the plants. Nothing is more common 
in a dry .summer, than the roiling ol the leaves 
ot corn; and the circum.stance is often mention- 
ed as an evidence of the severity of the drouth. 
There is another advantage in subsoiling. If 
the season is wet, it has the effect of partially 
draining the land, and cau-ses the water to settle 
and carry with it any vitriolic or other noxious 
matters. 
I am not aware that subsoil plowing has as 
yet, in this country, received much attention- 
tion; but from my own experience, and several 
experiments made by different persons in differ- 
ent sections, and with very indifferent imple- 
ments, the results have been such that I am led 
to believe that it will prove of very great advan- 
tage on old soils that have been long under cul- 
tivation. 
E. Phinney, Esq., a very spirited and success- 
ful farmer in Lexington, Mass., in a letter pub- 
lished in the New England Farmer, in speaking 
of an experiment made with a substitute for a 
subsoil plow, in a field of carrots, says, “A part 
of my crop of carrots was sown upon the same 
land appropriated to that crop last year; no more 
manure was applied than in the previous year, 
and notvdthstanding the very severe drouth 
which greatly injured most of our root crops, 
my crop on this piece of land was nearly double 
that of last year. There is no known cause to 
which I can attribute this great increase of the 
produce, but the use of my new constructed sub- 
stitute for a subsoil plow. The soil was stirred 
to th? depth of fourteen inches; by this means 
the roots of the carrots we e enabled to strike 
deep, and thereby not only to find more nourish- 
ment, but to overcome, in a great measure, the 
effects of a very pinching drouth.” 
It is stated in the New England Farmer, 
“that B. V, French, Esq., of Braintree, Mass , 
raised the past season, over 23 tons per acie of 
white carrots, on ground not particularly well 
prepared for roots. He attributes this” great 
crop principally to the use of the subsoil plow on 
the land the previous season.” 
The subsoil plow has been tried in Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware, but I have not as yet seen 
any account of its effect on the crops. For deep 
rooted plants, no one, I think, will pretend to 
gainsay. "VVhy do our gardens produce so 
much mere to the acre than our fields? Is it 
not, in a great measure, owing to deep tillage 
and mixing the under with the upper soil? 
Mr. Smith, of Deanston, to whom is awarded 
the Cl edit of first succes-sfully introducing the 
subsoil plow, in a lecture delivered before the 
Royal Agricultural Society of England, in July 
la.'-t, says, “When I first began to cultivate my 
own farm, although I had put in the drains, I 
found they werfl^Sot so efficacious as I at first 
expected; and I then began to think of stirring 
up the subsoil, which gave rise to the idea of a 
subsoil plow. I thought 1 must construct an 
instrument which would execute the work with, 
the least possible power. I made my plough 
very strong, and of that form to which the least 
resistance would be opposed, at the same time 
taking care to have sufficient power fairly to stir 
up the soil. 
“I will here explain theprinciple ofthe subsoil 
plow, because I have found tliat many persons, 
although seemingly acquainted with it, have 
not a proper notion of the principle on which it 
is based. The great principle is, that there are 
many subsoils, which, though capable ol being 
converted into a good soil, yet il brought up and 
mixed with the active soil, will so far deterio- 
rate it as to make it for some time sterile. It 
therefore occurred to me, that the great point 
would be to stir up the subsoil, still retaining the 
good soil on the surface. Stirring up the sub- 
soil would, in the first place, very much facili- 
tate the escape ol the water into the drains; and 
secondly, in consequence of the passage of the 
water through the stirred up subsoil, and the at- 
tendant admission of air, it would be so acted 
upon as to be converted into good soil, while, at 
the same time, I was having all the advantages 
of working the active soil as before.” 
Having treated of the process, and noticed 
some of the advantages derived from subsoil 
plowing, I will now endeavor to give a descrip- 
tion of some ot the implements made use of tor 
that purpose, three of which are of European, 
and one of American macutacture. In proof 
ot the estimation m which subsoiling is held in 
England, I would state that no less than eight 
subsoil plows were entered for competition and 
exhibition at the Fair of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, held in Bristol in July last. 
The subsoil plow is not a new invention, but 
was in use in England more than fifty years ago, 
and recently brought into prominent notice by 
Mr. Smith, of Deanston, Scotland. In Dick- 
son’s Report of Lancashire, is the following no- 
tice of the “Miner ordeep-stirring plow:” 
“There is another tool of the plow kind, 
somewhat similar in construction, which wa* 
introduced into the country about ihe same pe- 
riod as the ‘Trench plow.’ It simply consista 
of a plowshare firmly fixed to a strong beam by 
means of a strong sheath and handle, without 
any mold board. It is u-'^ually drawn by four or 
more horses, being made to follow in the furrow 
of the common plow, so as to penetrate into, 
