The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-11-18

| Dut thC uAolhot hSuI olu huo"
ledge in our day have far less excuse tha
their remote ancestors, or even theii owI
grandiathers. 1t was always well to urg
deep blowing and the like; but SO long q
the plow was but forked log or stick, witt
one prong sharpened for coulter, and othe
employed as beam, it was hardly possible
to plow thoroughly. In our day, however
the advance from wooden pows through rol
points and iron mold-boards to iron plows
steel points, steel pows, and subsoiing, ha.
been SO signal and decisive that the shiftles
creature who with his two lean ponies skim
and skins over the fields he ought either Il
cultivate or let alone,-scratching their sur
face mildly to depth Of three or four inches
sins against such an array of light ant
knowledge that he is far less excusable than
his ancestors who did not pretend to plow al
all, but stuck in seed here and there as they
could easiest find a hole or make one, and
trusted to Providence to give them an unde.
served return for their spiritless and frivolous
efforts. @t- +t"
The three main features of Agricultural
advancement among the Anglo-Saxon race
now-a-days are: i. DEEP PLowING, OR SUB.
SoILINe; Q. DRAINING; 3. IRRIGATION. 1 am
quite aware that Draining should take pre-.
cedence in the order of time, yet l believe
in point of fact, Deep Flowing has led to
Draining, by demonstrating its necessity, g.
not Draining 10 Deep Flowing. We suffer
immensely from drouth in this country. Pro-
badly the aggregate annual loss from drouth
alone throughout the Union decidedly ex-
ceeds, taking one year with another, the en-
tire cost of our Federal Government. Yet
we know that the roots of most plants will
descend to moisture, no matter how dry the
surface, if the earth beneath them is porous,
mellow and inviting. Hence we realize the
immense Importance Of Deep Flowing; and,
after doubling our teams and sinking our
deepest Plows to the beam, we summon to
our aid the Sub-Soil implement, and go down
a depth beyond that of any single furrow.-
But we soon find that the puverization Of
the sub-soil, thus attained, has no permanent
effect; that the water that teaches down to it
settles it into a compact, solid mass, which
the roots cannot perforate; and all our sub
soiling needs to be done over again. The
remedy that readily suggests itself is the
freeing Of the sub-soil from water by drains
sunk below it, say three to six rods apart, g.
filled half way up with pebbles, with fiat
stones forming a sort of culvert, or, still bet
ter, laid with draining-tile or hollow brick,
placed end to end, and forming q continuous
channel from the highest part of any slope
or grade to the brook which drains it. And
now the sub-soil, supposing the drains, we'll
made and the drainage-way sufficient, is
readily freed from any water settling into it
and long retains the porous and permeaole
character communicated TO it by deep plow-
ing.
OF course, this does not exhaust the good
effects OF Draining. The sub-soil, thus loos-
ened and freed from excessive moisture, be-
comes u source of food as well as drink to
the plants growing above it; for that it is
capable Of feeding plants, no one, who has
observed the rank vegetation growing out of
the earth thrown up by draining or digging,
can doubt. Instead of being like a slough
in wet weather and like brick in dry, the
sub-soil retains sufficient moisture to cheer
the plants but too little to indurate ITSELF
And the mean ten peraturc OF the soil, hlth-
erto lowered by the constant evaporation OF
the water contained in the sub-soil, is raised
several degrees by the SUMS rays, no longer
contracted by the evaporating process,--at
least, not to any such extent as before-so
that the plants grow more luxuriantly, mature
more rapidly, and SO are earlier out of danger
from frost. And beside this, the constant
passage of currents of air through that por-
ton of the drain not occupied by wa;er,--and
each drain should have an opening at its
head as we'll as at its mouths an addition
al source of fertility through the chemical
combinations it insures. 1t would be diff
ficult to overstate the value, the importance,
the profit, of Draining.
Many are accustomed to say, "IAis land
needs no draining;' meaning that it is no,
habitually too wet. But draining proves as
useful, If it is not as imperatively necessary
on dry soils as on wet On dry lands it is
required that the sub-soil, once broken up and
puiverized, shall not, by the settling o
moisture therein during the wet season, be
hardened and rendered impervious again
these lands need to be rendered porous ant
penetrabe by roots to a greater depth becaus
of their dryness, they need to be shielded
from the pernicous effects of constant evapor
ton in cooling the soil, and thus rctardinl
the growth of its plants. There is very mucl
land not worth tilling; but there is none tina
will justify tillage which would not rewar'
Draining. ... ... y.r,.a .-
| OF Irrigation, we in this country know
very little by experience; but we are destin
ed soon to know more, and TO be profted BY
our knowledge. True, there are lands tina
may be readily drained and sub-soiled tina
cannot 80 readily be irrigated, owing to the
elevation and a deficient supply of water.
apprehend, however, that these lands are no
to be found in Indiana, nor in any othe
Prairie State, whose first pecuiarties tha
strike stranger are a. superabundance o
water in the rainy season and scarcit.
thereof in the dry. The time is at hand whel
you will here require extensive and power
l fu pumping apparatus, if only to raise waite
for your heavy stocks of cattle and convey
to the pastures wherein they win be confin
ed; and why not raise enough of the CRATE
/ ful fluid to refresh pastures and cattle alike
4 But even though this assured and ampl