10 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[January, 
clayey earth ‘| i 0 ; and of gravelly earth 
(Gillespie ou Road Making, page 119). In other 
words, sandy soils are compressed more than 
clayey soils by working. It is often very desirable 
to compress sandy soils so as to give a firmer 
foothold for the plants, especially of wheat. 
An English turnip fallow, which makes the 
land as mellow and loose as an ash heap, when 
the turnips are afterwards fed off on the land 
by sheep, converts a “ blowing sand” into 
firm, fertile land. But our object at present is 
merely to call attention to the shrinkage of soils 
by working them, and to the fact that clayey 
soils are compressed less than sandy soils. 
Our readers can draw their own conclusions. 
---at- ■ -- 
Deep Plowing Should be Done Gradually. 
A correspondent, who has one of the finest 
and most productive farms in Western New 
York, which he keeps in a high state of fertility 
by thorough cultivation and the growth of red 
clover, makes the following sensible remarks 
in regard to deep plowing: “ A sudden bringing 
up to the surface of many inches of heavy clay, 
that has never been punctured by the roots of 
plants, and this too in the spring of the year, 
would probably injure the first crop. Clay sub¬ 
soils are best brought to the surface two or three 
inches at a time, and that in the fall, so that the 
frosts of winter may mellow them down. The 
next spring plow, say twice as many inches 
deep as the clay subsoil is thick. This will mix 
things up so that even a crop of corn would be 
much improved by the deep fall plowing. If 
we had the power and tools necessary to go 
on with this process of bringing up the 
subsoil to, and mixing it with, the surface soil, 
until we had one foot or more of mellow soil 
that had been enriched by turning under re¬ 
peated clover crops, and then under this foot or 
more of soil, we could run a subsoil plow two 
feet deep, and so break the clay to a depth of 
three feet, the clover roots would have a chance 
to bring to the surface the fertility that now lies 
dormant under the surface of our lands. This 
is the theory that I have constructed on the 
experience of a lifetime as a farmer; and I have 
no doubt of its applicability on our lands here. 
I do not think it would do on all lands, but it is 
practicable here, or at least will be when we get 
the Steam Plow that can do the subsoiling for 
us. In the meantime we are doing the best we 
can in the direction I have indicated.” 
The Clover and Lime Theory in Practice. 
We have had much to say upon the benefits 
of using lime and clover upon worn-out soils, to 
give them a start. And yet we are apprehen¬ 
sive that many of our readers have regarded 
the matter as mainly theoretical, and will not 
be induced to try it. Although agriculture is 
admitted to be a tentative art, some things are 
settled as well as they ever can be by any 
amount of experiment. Among them is the util¬ 
ity of applying lime to soils that have not al¬ 
ready enough of it, and cropping with clover to 
add vegetable matter and ammonia to thin, light 
soils, or those that do not give remunerative 
crops. In a recent trip over the line of the 
New Jersey Central Railroad, we saw abund¬ 
ant evidence of the renovation of worn-out 
farms. Thirty years ago these farms were un¬ 
productive, and many of their owners were 
anxious to sell out at thirty dollars an acre and 
emigrate. It was difficult to sell a.t any price. 
Now one will have to go far to find a more 
beautiful farming region than stretches from 
Plainfield, N. J., to Easton, Pa. Farms are 
worth from $125 to $200 per acre, and are con¬ 
stantly increasing in value. It is true some of 
this rise is due to the railroad, which affords 
better facilities for marketing, but the most of 
it is owing to the better management of the land. 
They make more of clover than in the regular 
Pennsylvania rotation, as it comes in oftener. 
The rotation is: 1, corn upon a clover sod, 
limed; 2, oats; 3, wheat, with the manure of 
the farm; 4, clover, to be cut or pastured. The 
farmers in all this region attribute the great 
change in the value of their lauds to this rota¬ 
tion. The crops are luxuriant, and the wheat 
fields as promising as in any part of the West. 
In all the better farming districts of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, similar results are manifest. Clover and 
lime, in connection with the manure made upon 
the place, keep the farms in good heart, and 
constantly improving. The average production 
of wheat and of corn in these districts is much 
higher than in.the Western States, which had a 
richer virgin soil. Wherever this treatment of 
the soil has been introduced, it secures the most 
satisfactory results. We do not see how this 
management of the soil can be considered as 
pertaining merely to the theory of agriculture. 
Yet the mass of our farmers in the Eastern 
States continue to raise clover in small patches, 
as a forage crop, without reference to its value 
as a renovator of the soil. If they would travel 
more and see what is accomplished in the line 
of their art, they would form better views, 
both of the theory and practice of agriculture. 
(For the American Agriculturist.) 
The Diseases of Animals. 
BY PROFESSOR JOHN GAMGEE, OF LONDON, ENGLAND. 
A movement is on foot, both in the Old 
World and the New, which promises great and 
beneficial results. A century since and more, 
the French inaugurated a system of supervision 
in relation to the manifestation of fatal cattle 
diseases, which led to the foundation of veteri¬ 
nary colleges. The steppe murrain, or rinderpest, 
which mowed down the herds at every move¬ 
ment of contending armies or enterprising 
stock drovers, stirred up the energies of the 
Germans, from the Russian frontier to the Rhine 
provinces, and even the Italians at a somewhat 
later date picked out four intelligent lads to be 
educated in the Veterinary College of A1 fort, in 
order afterwards to diffuse the knowledge they 
acquired amongst the people of their native 
land. England had been engaged in numerous 
continental wars, and the flood of people cross¬ 
ing the German Ocean and British Channel at¬ 
tached at various times fatal links between the 
infected herds of Central Europe and those of 
the British farmer. Early last century England 
suffered severely, and conlinued to suffer, more 
or less, at intervals, until by the advice of 
intelligent physicians, amongst whom may be 
numbered Cullen, the importation of foreign 
cattle was strictly prohibited. 
Thus freed from contagious cattle disease, the 
breeds of England improved, and how much 
this immunity from fatal maladies has tended to 
the development of that excellence for which 
British stock is proverbial is a question which 
lias never been discussed. I, for one, believe 
that the protection offered to British herds' by 
strict isolation from the plague-stricken animals 
of Eastern Europe was for three-quarters of a 
century one of the silent but most active agen¬ 
cies favoring the development of our match¬ 
less bovine breeds. Since the introduction of 
pleuro-pneumoniaand thefootand mouth disease 
we have in many points gone back, and our 
town dairymen fail to obtain in large quantities 
the excellent half-bred Short-horn cows which 
filled their milk-pails to repletion. They have had 
to import Dutch cattle, and with these much dis¬ 
ease. The rinderpest in 1865-’66-’67 effectually ac¬ 
complished the reduction of our breeding stock, 
but at the same time the restrictions on trade 
which had to be enforced cleared off the other 
contagious diseases. Had the Liberal party in 
the House of Commons not been misled by its 
leaders, who construed preventive measures into 
measures for the rich to the detriment of the 
poor, cattle-disease legislation would have pros¬ 
pered, and another term of peace and prosper¬ 
ity would have ruled the destinies of our enter¬ 
prising breeders. As it is, little is being done 
for the protection of British herds, beyond the 
discussions and resolutions at Farmers’ Clubs and 
Chambers of Agriculture. The lessons learned, 
however, cannot be forgotten, and at a recent 
meeting in Edinburgh of the first active and 
important Chamber of this description, it was 
proposed that a Consolidated Cattle Diseases, 
Traffic, and Transit Act of Parliament would, by 
providing increased security and protection 
from disease, and thereby decreasing the cost 
of producing meat, be of the greatest advant¬ 
age, not only to the agricultural interest, but to 
the whole community; and further, that the 
recent ravages of cattle plague prove the neces¬ 
sity for a comprehensive measure, whilst the ex¬ 
perience gained indicates the most effective 
means for the extermination and prevention of 
contagious diseases. 
We need not enter further into the details of 
the Scottish recommendations, beyond remark¬ 
ing that it is proposed to legislate for contagious 
diseases only, which comprise both the fatal 
and non-fatal. Considering that America has 
repeatedly imported the lung disease from 
England and Holland, all that is done there for 
the prevention of cattle disease interests the 
people of the New World. But, strange to say, an 
indigenous disease, one springing, in physicians’ 
language, as an endemic or local disease, from 
the rank pastures of the Gulf States, has stirred 
the cattle breeders of the whole continent. A 
meeting of the American Convention of Cattle 
Commissioners has just been held at Springfield, 
Ill. We congratulate all engaged in that import¬ 
ant reunion on the earnestness and business-like 
skill brought to bear on the subjects discussed. 
The Black Water or Fever of Texas has been an 
excuse, and a good one, for attempting more than 
checking the movement of Southern steers in-the 
summer. Specific recommendations are made 
in this respect, but State authorities are no 
longer to overlook the ravages by fatal diseases 
of any kind affecting the lower animals, and 
Congress is to be memorialized with a view to 
the obtainment of reliable and exhaustive reports 
concerning what almost deserves the appellation 
of the Cattle Plague of America. There is one 
point which the Springfield convention should 
not have overlooked. That is the establishment 
of veterinary colleges. The States or the 
general Government must take this matter in 
hand, for without pecuniary aid such efforts as 
those to which Dr. John Busteed, of New York, 
has devoted his life and means must prove 
abortive. Veterinary colleges are needed, and 
the example of France and Prussia, of Austria, 
and even Russia, must be followed, or this 
country will experience the lamentable dis¬ 
asters which have crippled and ruined many a 
farmer and stock breeder In the Old Country. 
