1846 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
331 
the lower soil is extremely loose and porous, so that 
the water can pass immediately off. The late Mr. 
Rham, a distinguished farmer, attempted this upon an 
adhesive soil, but found that, to use his own expression, 
it held water as a sponge, and became quite unmanage¬ 
able until he proceeded completely to drain it with 
tiles. ‘Until there is an escape for the water through 
the subsoil, any opening of it but provides a greater 
space for holding water, and will rather tend to injure 
than improve the soil.’ ” 
“Results of Subsoiling and Draining. —The 
improvements effected by the process of thorough 
draining and subsoiling have been most remarkable. 
The manager of the farm of Sir Robert Peel says, ‘that 
he can confidently state that the crop of turneps, after the 
above treatment, was four times the quantity in weight 
ever produced in the same field at any previous time*’ Mr. 
Smith says in an early treatise on this subject, that when 
land has been thoroughly drained, deeply wrought, and 
well manured, the most unpromising, sterile soil be¬ 
comes a deep, rich loam, rivalling in fertility the best 
natural land in the country, and from being fitted for 
raising only scanty crops of common oats, will bear 
good crops of from 32 to 48 bushels of wheat, 30 to 40 
bushels of beans, 40 to 60 bushels of barley, and from 
48 to 70 bushels of early oats, per statute acre, besides 
potatoes, turneps, mangel-wurzel, and carrots, as green 
crops, and which all good agriculturists know are the 
abundant producers of the best manure.” 
Mr. Smith also states that when he commenced ope¬ 
rations on his farm, the soil of a part of it was not more 
than four or four and a half inches deep, but since he 
has drained and subsoiled it, he can turn up sixteen 
inches of good soil. 
It seems however, that equal success has not attended 
subsoil-plowing in all cases. Where the soil is very 
adhesive and heavy, it soon runs together and becomes 
as impervious to water as it was before the subsoil had 
been stirred. Hence, thorough draining is essentially 
necessary in connection with the loosening of the sub¬ 
stratum. 
Subsoiling Light Lands. —Though some may be 
surprised that this system should be applied to light and 
sandy land, yet Mr. Colman states many cases of its 
beneficial effects have come within his own knowledge. 
He mentions the case of a man having 400 acres of 
sandy land which had been used as a rabbit war¬ 
ren. The surface was undulating, the swells being 
covered with heather, and the hollows with aquatic 
plants. The soil of the hills was a sterile sand, which 
had been heretofore cultivated and then abandoned. 
“About six or eight inches below the surface, this 
sandy soil seemed to become hardened into almost a 
sandstone, with the occurrence occasionally of an im¬ 
pervious bed of ironstone, presenting wherever it did 
occur, a complete obstacle to the entrance of the plough¬ 
share.” After this land had been thoroughly subsoiled, 
it yielded over 80 bushels of oats to the acre, and when 
the account w r as written, had a beautiful crop of wheat 
growing on what had been the worst portion. 
Under the head of Irrigation, Mr. C. gives some 
interesting facts, to which we may refer hereafter. He 
mentions that great pains are now being taken in the 
vicinity of all the cities and large towns, to save the 
water of the sewers and apply it to the soil. Instances 
are given which show that such liquids have produced 
a very fertilizing effect—the lands to which they were 
applied yielding the most bountiful crops. The ap¬ 
plication of urine to lands is also becoming quite gene¬ 
ral in Englanci, and the best means are being adopted 
for saving and using it. The example of Mr. Dicken¬ 
son, who keeps 150 to 200 horses, in London, is cited. 
The urine of the horses is conveyed by channels into a 
tank, and is from thence emptied into a watering cart by 
a pump. About five miles from London Mr. D. has a 
farm, to which all the urine is carried and distributed, 
by means of a watering-cart, on the growing crops. 
Before it is used, however, it is mixed with water in 
the proportion of one part of urine to two parts water, 
and about 1100 gallons of urine and 2200 gallons of wa¬ 
ter are used per acre. It is applied mostly to grass 
land, and is put on immediately after the crop has been 
cut. The kind of grass cultivated is mostly Italian rye 
grass, of which at the time of seeding, (autumn,) four 
bushels were formerly sown per acre, but with an im¬ 
proved sowing machine, two bushels only are now 
used, and yet the plants appear to be as thickly set a* 
formerly, when by hand-sowing double the quantity of 
seed was given. Mr. D.’s soil is a stiff clay, which is 
mixed with rubbish gathered from the removal of old 
buildings. The produce of grass where the urine is 
applied, is worthy of note. It is stated that in 1844, 
the rye grass was mowed ten times. 
First in March, when it was about ten inches high; 
April 13, a second time; May 4, a third time; May 25, 
a fourth time; June 14, a fifth time; July 22, a sixth 
time. “Immediately after each of these crops, th® 
land was watered once from a London street watep- 
cart, with one part of urine from the stables, and two 
parts of water, the produce of each crop increasing 
with the temperature of the atmosphere from three- 
quarters of a load per acre, as hay, to three loads per 
acre. The crop having shed a quantity of its seed, it 
was feared the urine might have injured its growing. 
It produced, however, three or four light crops after¬ 
wards. 
“In 1845, his first cutting was on the 6th April; his 
second, 3d of May; his third, 9th of June. On the 22d 
of September, the fourth crop on the land ipeasured 
three feet; the sixth crop, on land which had been pre 
viously mowed five times, measured one foot and a 
half.” 
At Mr. Colman’s request, Mr. Dickinson took special 
pains to ascertain the exact yield of hay per acre. Of 
the fifth crop of the season, he cut a yard square, 
which was first dried twelve days in the open air, then 
dried three days in a room heated to 59 degrees, then 
three days in a kitchen at 70 degrees of heat, and lastly 
two hours before the fire. The weight of it at the 
close of the process, was 2 lbs. 6^ oz., which, it is said, 
would give at the rate of about 5 tons 3 cwt. to the 
acre. 
Mr. Colman thinks that in the neighborhood of cities, 
in the United States, a vast amount of urine might be 
collected, at small expense, and carried out by the 
neighboring farmers without offence to any body, and 
with very great public and private advantage. Mr. C. 
quotes from Liebig, that in a c ; ty containing 100,000 in¬ 
habitants, tnere is produced annually 24,440 tons of 
urine, sufficient to manure, by irrigation, 50,000 acres ot 
land, and worth at least $60,000. 
Soiling, or House Feeding. —Mr. Colman informs 
us that the practice of soiling does not prevail to a very 
great extent in England; but he says horses are almost 
universally soiled upon clover, rye grass, rye, vetches 
or tares, or rye and vetches sown together. The horses 
are frequently kept upon them without any additional 
feed; but when on the road, or when the farm work is 
severe, they require grain of some sort in addition.” 
“ That a great saving of food is effected by soiling 
there can be no doubt; no one rates it at less than two 
to one; many say that three animals, some assert that 
four animals, can be well kept upon the produce of land, 
if soiled, where not more than one could be kept if de¬ 
pastured. The difference, undoubtedly, in this respect, 
is very great in favor of soiling; but its expediency 
upon the whole, in any given ease, will be affected by 
a variety of local circumstances.” 
Mr. C. is of opinion, however, that the soiling of 
work horses and work oxen on a farm, is always to be 
advised. The reasons for this are, that they require the 
most particular superintendance, which can only be 
given them when they are near at hand; they should 
be protected against extreme changes of temperature 
which they are liable to suffer when turned at night 
into a pasture; they require to have their food pre¬ 
pared and brought to them, to give them opportunity 
for sleep and repose—a horse turned empty at night 
into a pasture, being obliged to pass a great part of the 
night in filling his stomach. 
