SPADE HUSBANDRY. 
Spade husbandry in conjunction with plough- 
ing makes fully as much use of the three-pronged 
fork as of the spade, and deals more directly 
with the subsoil than with the soil, and possesses 
perfect adaptation to extensive fields and farms, | 
and is capable of great achievements in the way 
of improving the tilth and produce of much 
valuable land which maintains a mediocre and 
stationary character under the action of horse- 
drawn implements. We cannot better illustrate 
these points than by presenting an abstract of a 
recent paper on the subject from the pen of Mr. 
Cuthbert W. Johnson. “The subsoil plough, to 
which such an impetus has been given by Mr. 
Smith of Deanston,” says he, “has been tried in 
much too careless a manner, and with too little 
discrimination, for it to be universally popular. 
Its effects, too, on many soils with stiff clay sub- 
strata, are neither remarkable in extent nor soon 
apparent. On such land the subsoil is not suffi- 
ciently broken, the earth merely rising or swell- 
ing in the trench, and speedily settling to nearly 
its former firmness. On such soils the spade, or, 
what is infinitely better, the fork, generally pro- 
duces much better effects—the soil is more 
broken, and the subsoil better interspersed with 
small cavities, to which the air penetrates, and 
through which the superfluous water of the soil 
escapes, and the roots of the cultivator’s crops 
extend with greatly increased facility. The rain 
gradually sinks down to the whole depth of the 
porous substratum, and from thence to the fur- 
row drains; and, in time of great drought, the 
deep-moved ground will hold, by capillary attrac- 
tion, a much greater supply of moisture for the 
nourishment of plants; so that thoroughly deep- 
ening and leosening the soil, not only assists the 
escape of the superabundant water during heavy 
rains, but it affords additional means of supply- 
ing healthy vegetation with moisture at those 
times when it is most needed. 
“ An experiment in fork-husbandry, on a bold 
scale, was commenced some time previous to 
1837, by Mr. Mitchell, in the parish of Wymond- 
ham in Norfolk,—and was reported by the late 
Dr. Yelloly to the British Association; and that 
portion of his remarks which alludes to the re- 
sults obtained I will give in this paper, since it 
| answers very completely certain practical ques- 
tions as to the working of the fork-husbandry 
which are sure to be proposed by those who have 
not witnessed the working of the system. The 
farm of Wattelfield, on which the experiment was 
conducted, consists of about 317 acres, of which 
207 are arable, and 110 in pastures and planta- 
tions. The digging was at first carried on with 
the spade, but this was speedily exchanged for a 
strong three-pronged fork, of 14 inches deep, 
_ and 7$ inches wide, which is found to be more 
manageable and less expensive than the spade. 
This fork cost 4s. 6d. instead of 6s. 6d., weighed 
8 lbs., and, when worked down, could be relaid 
at a trifling expense. The digging is effected by 
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taking in about 4 inches of earth at a time, 
pressing perpendicularly, and getting to a proper 
depth at two thrusts. The earth, however, is 
not turned out of the trench to a greater depth 
than ten inches, although the fork may get down 
as far as 13 or 14, but that which remains at the 
bottom in the state of what is called ‘crumbs’ 
answers the purpose equally with the earth 
which is thrown out, of forming a permeable 
medium for the roots of the plant which is to 
grow in it. The men prefer working together, 
in order that their labour may be, as nearly as 
possible, on the same description of soil; but 
each takes in about 9 feet in width, so that his 
work can be easily measured. The plan is to 
have a breathing about every half hour, and the 
men never work more than the regular ten hours 
per day. Digging is, however, more laborious 
than the usual operations of agriculture, though 
it is much less so with the use of the fork than 
when the spade is employed. The labourers 
work the land in ridges of about 9 feet in width; 
and the furrows dividing them are sometimes 
made by the plough previously to the digging, 
and sometimes by the management of the la- 
bourers. The men receive for the ordinary dig- 
ging after a white crop from 2d. to 24d. per rod, 
of thirty square yards, the price varying accord- 
ing to the tenacity of the soil. Where the land 
is to have a fallow crop, such as turnip, mangel- 
wurzel, or cabbages (for no part of the farm or 
the land in the immediate neighbourhood has 
ever a naked fallow), there is first a ploughing, 
which is done at a season when the horses can 
be best spared, and afterwards a digging at from 
13d. to 2d. per rod. In preparing for a fallow 
crop, there is also an expense incurred in har- 
rowing and in raising a ridge with the plough, 
which last is worth about 7s. per acre. The men 
are paid the usual wages of the neighbourhood 
at harvest ; but as the whole number ordinarily 
employed are not required at that period, those 
for whom there is no occasion disperse them- 
selves amongst the neighbouring farmers, with 
the understanding that they may resume their 
employment when harvest is over, which they 
are always happy in doing. The ordinary earn- 
ings of a Jabourer in digging are from Ils. to 12s. 
per week. It is to be noticed that Mr. Mitchell 
has always ploughed clover lay for the succeed- 
ing crop, not dug it, and that the horses, when 
not wanted for other purposes, are employed in 
assisting the diggers in preparing the land for 
seed. ‘Twenty labourers are kept upon the farm 
instead of thirteen, who would be necessary under 
the ordinary system, and five or six horses in- 
stead of twelve. As the demands upon these 
horses, in hay and corn harvest, are considera- 
ble, a good proportion of the hay and corn is 
stacked in the fields where they are grown. 
“It is hardly necessary, in support of these 
facts, to refer to the very considerable and suc- 
cessful extent to which the spade husbandry 
