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_ THE CUIiTIVATOR. 
TO IMPROVE THE SO IL AND THE MIND. 
The New Husbandry. 
Having shown that manures are indispensable to 
good husbandry—that they constitute the food of plants 
—and that they may be greatly increased by good 
management, we proceed now to the second requisite 
in the new system of husbandry, viz : 
II. DRAINING. 
Few improvements of modern date are likely to be¬ 
come more beneficial to the northern section of the 
union, than systematic draining. In the first place it 
will reclaim, and render highly productive, large tracts 
of land, which are now unproductive in any thing use¬ 
ful, by reason of the water which constantly covers or 
saturates them. In the next place, it will improve 
lands that are wet, and render them far more mana¬ 
geable and productive, in grain, roots, and the more 
nutritious grasses, by carrying off the superfluous wa¬ 
ter. Where there is ari excess of moisture in the 
soil, ploughing can only be imperfectly performed, nor 
until late in spring,—the benefit of manure is lost, and 
the cultivated crop is light, and more subject to ver¬ 
nal and autumnal frosts, than it would be if the land 
was laid dry. 
The soil, in regard to vegetable nutrition, may be 
compared to the animal stomach, which digests,—and 
the spongeoles or rootlets of the plant to the lacteals 
of the animal, which absorb and take up, and propel, 
the digested food to the elaborating organs—the lungs 
of the one, and the leaves of the other,—where this 
food undergoes its last preparation, and is fitted to be¬ 
come a part of the organic matter of the animal or 
vegetable. We all know that when the animal sto¬ 
mach is out of order, from any cause, so that the food 
taken upon it is not properly digested, the subsequent 
processes of nutrition are arrested, and if the cause is 
not removed, the animal sickens, and ultimately dies. 
So with the soil. If the vegetable matter deposited 
there, to feed the crop, is not decomposed, or rotted, 
and resolved into a liquid or gaseous form, so that it 
can be taken up by the spongeoles, the plant will be¬ 
come sickly and unproductive, and the processes of 
healthy nutrition he at a stand. Hence the accumu¬ 
lation of vegetable matters in swamps, marshes and 
other locations habitually saturated with water, and 
their great fertility when thoroughly drained, and ex¬ 
posed to the influence of all the agents of putrefac¬ 
tion; and hence the necessity of draining the wet 
grounds on our farms before we can expect to make 
them profitable by culture. Coarse and aquatic plants, 
it is true, do grow in wet grounds, and in water; hut 
few of the cultivated crops, however, are found to 
thrive where the ground is not dry and permeable to 
the influence of the sun and atmosphere. 
It is not enough that the surface of a soil be dry : 
it must he so to the depth to which the roots of plants 
penetrate for food, at least fifteen to eighteen inches, 
to insure a healthy growth of vegetation. It is the 
extremities of these roots which gather the food, and 
which are constantly elongating while the pi ant grows ; 
and if roots extend into a wet stratum, the food which 
they take up is either too much diluted, or not other¬ 
wise adapted to a healthy vegetation. Nor is this all: 
the water injures or destroys the fibrous parts of the 
roots, and unfits them for the performance of their 
functions. 
We have published ample directions in the Culti¬ 
vator, for the various modes of draining; and have 
pressed upon the notice of our readers the importance 
of this branch of improvement. Yet we have a few 
remarks to offer here, on the particular advantages 
which underdrains possess over open drains, in cer¬ 
tain locations. 
The object of draining being to carry off the sur¬ 
plus water before it saturates the surface soil, impedes 
early tillage, and injures the crop, it should be our 
first care to ascertain the cause of wetness, and where 
the deposite, or fountain is, which is the source of the 
evil. Where water ris'es through the .subsoil or the 
lower strata, in spouts or springs, as well as where, 
falling upon a flat surface, it collects and reposes up¬ 
on an impervious subsoil, underdrains are decidedly 
best, at least to collect the surplus waters into a main 
open drain. They are not only best, because the 
most efficient, but they are the most durable, most 
economical, and waste no land. 
They are the most efficient. They can be made to 
reach, by digging and boring, the depot of water, or 
water stratum, and thus to carry it off before it ap¬ 
proaches the surface, or pasture of plants. Open 
drains do this but seldom, or but imperfectly, because 
they are not often carried deep enough, and are con¬ 
tinually liable to obstructions, which impair their effi¬ 
cacy. 
They are most durable. An underdrain, laid in the 
most approved mode, with stone or tile, will last an 
age, if not a century. Open drains are but tempora¬ 
ry in their beneficial effects, without periodical re¬ 
pairs. 
They are the most economical. A good underdrain 
generally costs no more than a good open drain, which 
effects a line purpose, and probably not so much, as 
the former can be carried down with nearly perpen¬ 
dicular sides, while the latter must be dug with slop¬ 
ing banks, and must embrace a width of surface cor¬ 
responding with its depth—the deeper the dram, the 
broader it must he at top. The cost of the stone or 
tile is in a manner counterbalanced by the difference 
in excavation. And when completed, the underdrain 
will require no annual repairs, while the open one will 
he a constant drain upon the labor of the farm, requir¬ 
ing bridges and frequent scouring and cleaning. If 
underdrains cost sometimes the most, they are un¬ 
questionably cheapest in the end—provided they are 
well made. 
Underdrains waste no land. They may be multipli¬ 
ed at every twenty feet, as they sometimes are upon 
stiff flat clays, without excluding the plough or the 
scythe, from a foot of the surface. Open drains, on 
the contrary, if made of suitable dimensions, require a 
breadth of three or four feet, and the plough is exclud¬ 
ed from as much more at their sides. 
We draw no comparisons, nor do we need any, be¬ 
tween the products of a field of habitually wet soil, or 
the trouble and expense of managing it, and the same 
field after it has undergone a thorough drainage and 
amelioration. Every farmer, we presume, has noticed 
the vast disparity in both. If there is one to whom 
it is not familiar, let him make the trial, and he will 
be astonished at the result, and at his own want of 
forethought in not having made it before. 
III. GOOD TILLAGE. 
When thorough draining has been effected, upon 
lands to be benefitted thereby, there is another opera¬ 
tion which is calculated to aid in the efficiency of ma¬ 
nures, and in the increase of farm products. This is 
good tillage—a perfect pulverization of the soil, and 
the keeping it free from weeds, which retard the 
growth of the crop, and rob it of its food. Good til¬ 
lage is important not only as it serves to exterminate 
weeds, to facilitate the digestion of vegetable food, 
and to mix and incorporate this food, with earthy ele¬ 
ments,—but as it breaks and mellows the soil, and 
enables the roots of plants to range freely in search of 
this food. Every farmer must have observed, that 
where tillage has been but imperfectly performed, as 
is sometimes seen about stumps and rocks, and near 
fences, the crop is comparatively feeble and light. 
This is not owing to the poverty of the soil, because 
the plough, as it rises to the surface in these places, 
deposites and accumulates there the best and finest 
mould of the field. The feebleness of the grain arises 
from the imperfect tillage which those spots receive. 
The old practice of carrying the main furrows to the 
extremity of the field, and of dispensing with head 
lands, is a bad and slovenly one, and ought to be every 
where exploded. The cut and cover practice, is still 
worse, as it leaves one-half, and sometimes two-thirds, 
of the soil, undisturbed by the plough. We remem¬ 
ber well, that when we followed the plough in our 
boyish days, and knew nothing of the philosophy of 
ploughing, our aim was, to go over much ground, and. 
show a ploughed surlace, regarding the complete 
breaking up of the soil as of minor importance. There 
will always be a great many boys at the plough, until 
the importance of good ploughing is better understood. 
Good ploughing consists in breaking or turning every 
inch of the soil; and good tillage requires that the 
harrow and roller should finish, if the plough has fail¬ 
ed to effect, a complete pulverization of the soil. A 
green sward becomes pulverulent as the roots of the 
grasses decay, and is best without a second furrow, 
because this turns again to the surface, to the wasting 
influence of the sun and winds, the vegetable matters 
buried by the first ploughing, and which, if left buried, 
would contribute largely to the sustenance of the crop. 
As the roots of the grasses decay, the soil becomes 
loose and porous, and is permeable to moisture, air 
and heat. Hence the advantage of fallow crops over 
naked fallows, and of depositing seeds upon the top 
of a clover lay ; the sod then imparts fertility to the 
soil, while it enables it to derive important advanta¬ 
ges from the co-operation of external agents. 
Good tillage requires, that where practicable, as in 
the culture of drilled and hoed crops, the surface soil 
should be kept clean and pulverulent, while the crop is 
growing, for the same reason that the soil is required 
to be made so before depositing the seed, viz: to fa¬ 
cilitate the decomposition of the vegetable food, to sti¬ 
mulate the organs of the plants, and increase the 
growth and product of the crop. There is no better 
expedient for preventing the evils of drought upon a 
soil, than that of keeping the surface mellow and 
clean. Atmospheric air and dew, both always charged 
with the nutritive food of plants, settles into such a 
surlace as into a sponge, and imparts to the roots of 
plants both aliment and stimuli. Dews fall upon a 
hard surface, and are evaporated by the first rays of 
the morning sun; but they penetrate a loose surface, 
and moisten and fructify it. Hence the high repute 
of the drill husbandry, which enables the cultivator to 
keep his crops clean, and the surface of his soil mel¬ 
low and open. 
Good til.age has reference to depth, as well as quali¬ 
ty of tilth. “ There are many plants, the roots of which 
are found at fifteen to twenty, and even thirty feet 
under ground—sainfoin and lucern, for instance ; even 
red clover well strike down to nearly three feet if the 
soil be a fertile loam; and some of our commonest 
vegetables, if it be friable or sandy, push their tap 
roots to about the same depth. The roots of wheat 
will penetrate as far as eight inches into the earth; 
and when sown on the crown of ridges, they have 
been found at the depth of twelve. We may there¬ 
fore assume the depth of twelve inches as the utmost 
vegetative limit of corn land. Provided the soil be 
open and fertile, the nearer its depth approaches to 
12 inches, the greater number of plants may it there¬ 
fore be supposed capable of furnishing with support.”— 
Brit. Hush. vol. ii, p. 49,50. Soils should be plough¬ 
ed as deep as the substratum will admit, at least once 
in a course of crops, if this can he reached with the 
force of an ordinary team ; and when the surface soil 
is superficial, it should be deepened, as fast as fertility 
can be imparted, by turning up, at suitable intervals, 
some portion of the subsoil. The atmosphere imparts 
to this apparent inert earth, more or less of the ele¬ 
ments of fertility. Baron Von Voght, increased vast¬ 
ly the value and products of his farm, by increasing 
the depth of its mould, (krume,) or vegetable pasture, 
in this way, in the period of sixteen years, 1 from three 
to fourteen inches. Land that in the outset would 
only yield him fourteen bushels of rye to the acre, 
was by this mode of improvement brought to yield 
twenty-four bushels of wheat; and the improvement 
was not confined to a part, but extended to the whole 
farm, comprising some hundred acres. The reader 
is referred, for a detail of these improvements, and an 
account of the Baron’s excellent system of husbandry, 
to No. 1, Vol. 2, of the Cultivator. And it has just 
been announced to us in a foreign journal, as one of 
the greatest improvements of the age, in rural affairs, 
that a plough has been invented, which breaks and 
pulverizes the subsoil, without turning it to the sur¬ 
face. Its advantages to agriculture are thus describ¬ 
ed by Le Fever, in Loudon’s Magazine :— 
“ Smith’s subsoil plough seems calculated to render 
the most sterile and unproductive soil fertile and pro¬ 
fitable.. Mr. Smith’s most ingenious invention, by break¬ 
ing the subsoil without bringing it to the surface, ren¬ 
ders it pervious to both air and water. The same che¬ 
mical changes which take place in a fallow, owing to its 
