UNIVERSITY FARM. 
IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS BY MECHANICAL MEANS. 
Extract from the Report of Prof. W. W. Daniells to the Board of Regents of the University 
of Wisconsin, 1873. 
This experiment was begun in 1871. Four adjacent plats of an 
acre each are to be cultivated as follows: 
Plat 1, to be plowed to a depth of five inches only. 
Plat 2, to be plowed twelve inches deep. 
Plat 3, to be plowed twenty inches deep by trench plowing. 
Plat 4, to be plowed twenty inches deep by subsoiling. 
Plats 1 and 2 have been cultivated in the prescribed manner 
each of the three years since the beginning of the experiment. 
Plat 3 was plowed in 1871 to the depth of twelve inches only ; 
in 1872 and 1873, it has been plowed 17 inches deep, which is as 
deep as it has been practicable to p^w. 
Plat 4 was plowed and subsoiled in 1871 to a depth of 16 inches, 
and in 1872 and 1873, 17 inches in depth. 
The cultivation of these plats has been the same in all other 
respects than those mentioned. 
The soil is clay, with a stiff clay subsoil; the land is level and 
rather low. 
These plats have been in cultivation to corn during the entire 
three years. The following table gives the results that have been 
obtained in bushels of ears of 75 lbs. each: 
Method of cultivation, 
1871 . 
1872 . 
1873 . 
Plowed 5 inches deep. 
55.40 
43.52 
53.4 
Plowed 12 inches deep. 
50.65 
50.32 
52.9 
Trench plowed 17 inches deep. 
44.95 
54.74 
51.3 
Snhsoiled 17 inches deen. 
42.21 
56.77 
51.1 
