1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
267 
sionally “subsoiled,” as the owner termed it, to six 
inches. A part of it fell into new hands, and it was 
immediately turned over to a depth of eleven to twelve 
inches by means of three yoke of oxen attached to a 
Michigan or double mould-board plow. An entirely 
new material was turned up to the light of day, consist¬ 
ing in part of the fertilizing calcareous subsoil, and 
in part of rotten leaves, decayed roots and black mold, 
which had never been reached before, presenting all 
the appearances of newly cleared land, and giving im¬ 
mediately a heavy growth in crops. In a neighboring 
county, an extensive and intelligent farmer assured 
us, that so great was the fertility of his subsoil that he 
would regard it as a favor could he have six inches of 
the upper soil completely carried off from his lands. 
Yet he never plows more than half a foot in depth, and 
does not subsoil or trench-plow, because he “ cannot 
afford it.” In some of the interior portions of the state, 
the soil is a light sand, which suffers drouth and steri¬ 
lity from a want of elay and marl. Now it happens 
that a large portion of this light and thin soil is under¬ 
laid at a depth of a foot or two with a strong calcare¬ 
ous loam, which might, at a very moderate expense, be 
thrown up from pits and spread in large quantities 
over the surface; and in some places it may be reached 
even by subsoiling and trench-plowing. One farmer 
accidentally discovered this subterranean bed of ferti¬ 
lity, by spreading broadcast from a ditch for a few 
yards on each side, the earth taken from the digging. 
In an unfavorable season, when the rest of the field 
produced only four bushels of wheat per acre, the land 
adjoining the ditch, which had been dressed with the 
subsoil, yielded at the rate of twenty bushels per acre. 
Yet,'to this day, the owner of the farm suffers this fer¬ 
tilizing subsoil to remain untouched and unreaehed. In 
other instances, there are extensive beds of peat and of 
marl, lying just as they have done for centuries, with 
the adjacent uplands starving for their beneficial influ¬ 
ence, which, if not as great as that of yard manure, is 
at least much more permanent. 
A late English agricultural journal, gives a few ex¬ 
amples of great benefit derived from using the material 
of the subsoil:—■ 
We have in our mind’s eye at this moment a case 
where a farm of moory land, but not high-lying, was 
purchased, including an excellent house, for about fif 
teen pounds per acre. The soil was a white, gritty 
sand, full of land springs; the surface had once been 
peat, but the poverty of the tenantry had induced them 
to pare off the peat from a great part of it, and thus it 
was left barren white sand to the top. Furze and 
rushes, with a little heath, was almost the entire pro¬ 
duce of the land. The owner drained, at a cost of 
about three pounds ten shillings per acre, aud clayed 
the whole, by digging ponds, at the rate of 200 loads 
per acre, or about five pounds more, and then sowed 
tumeps and seeds, followed by wheat. The result was 
most successful, and the farm is now in good cultiva¬ 
tion, and let, we should say, for 20s. per acre, W r e do 
not happen to know the exact rental, but it strikes us 
as being the probable amount. But more; the fences 
had been planted and died. The owner immediately 
renewed them by re-planting, manuring the quicksets 
with clay. They grew amazingly, and are now re¬ 
markably healthy and good fences. 
Mr. Gould’s experience with sixty acres of light 
moorland, as detailed in the Transactions of the Bath 
and West of England Agricultural Society , bear 
strongly upon the point. He took the waste on a lease, 
pared and burned, and, in sinking a well, happened to 
take out some clay, which he carted into his eleven 
acre enclosure. The result was that his subsequent 
crop of oats showed a produce of 50 bushels per acre, 
and his unclayed not more than 30 bushels. The sub¬ 
sequent grass or clover on the clayed part was excel¬ 
lent, while not a plant grew on the unclayed. He then 
clayed the whole of the 60 acres at intervals, and in 16 
years had applied 80 loads per acre—twice, forty—and 
the result has been most satisfactory in the whole, being 
rendered capable of growing good crops of com, tur- 
neps, and grass, and is carried on in the four-course 
system. 
It is not every subsoil, we readily admit, that pos¬ 
sesses the remarkable qualities of those which have 
been mentioned, and no one should think of rushing 
blindly into an extensive experiment, before he has 
tested its probable value on a small scale. It should 
not, however, he forgotten, that many subsoils which 
at first present every appearance of sterility, are often 
so improved by exposure to the air, by pulverization, 
and by mixture with the surface mold, as ultimately 
to become very productive. 
Position of Side-hill Drains. 
An erroneous opinion has prevailed in relation to the 
position of parallel drains on hill sides, the practice 
being common in some places of laying the channels 
sideways with the hill, with hut little fall or current, 
instead of putting them directly up-hill so as to give a 
rapid descent. 
There are some instances in which a drain cut side- 
wise will prove of great value. If, for example, a po¬ 
rous or gravelly hill (A, fig. 1,) rest on a water-tight 
hard-pan surface, (B,) the rain which falls upon the 
hill will immediately pass through the soil till it 
reaches the hard-pan, over which it will flow until it 
“ crops out ” at the surface and forms the marsh or wet 
ground at 0. A ditch cut at D, parallel with the foot 
of the hill, and having a slight descent, will cut off 
these under-ground channels in a more efficient manner 
than could be done in any other way. 
But it more commonly happens, in modern tile¬ 
draining, that a large, moderately sloping, and nearly 
uniform surface, is to be relieved of its surplus water, 
a large portion of which descends directly from the 
clouds, and another portion flows down from higher 
land through the plowed soil, resting at a nearly uni¬ 
form depth upon a harder and more impervious subsoil, 
(fig. 2.) Now, if the drains are located sidewise with 
the hill, the descent will he so small that the water 
will not flow off freely, but will fill a considerable por¬ 
tion of the ditch, and consequently a large part, instead 
