The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1854-08-02
Deep Plowing.

We find The following statement and
remarks in an essay on worn-out lands,
by Charles Painter. published in a late
number of the American Farmer. W.
will add single corroborating fac I
A few years since we took charge of a
piece Of land. from which the forest
had been cleared snme forty nine o,
fifty years, and had been much worn
with hard cropping aud shallow plow-
ing. BY using double Michigan plow,
We entered to depth Of une foot,-
twice as deep asany previous plowing.
and turned up rotten leaves, black
mould. decayed roots, &c. The whole
looked like newly cleared land, Irom
the abundance Of those rich materials
that had never before seen the light,
aud the subsequent crop showed its
great fertility:
"rhe practice Of plowing deep
deep! cannot be too highly recomlnen-
ded in every and all soils. Many farm
ers have an erroneous impression. that
if the subsoil is brought to the surface,
its apparent want of strength will in
jure the quality Of the surface soil; but
If they will reflect that all trees, and
very many plants, draw their nourish-
ment from the depths Of the earth,
where the pillow cannot reach, it will
be admitted there must unavoidably be
found there matter of a fertilizing ma
ture. The writer has seen the most
astonishing effects produced by turn
ing up to the surface three inches of
what had been subsoil lin nne instance
where The land had been in cultivation
under ruinous system for more than
half a century, ond had become com-
pletely impoverished, it was made to
yield two tons of clover aud timothy
to the acre without any other assis-
lance whatever than deep plowing.
"There is no doubt whatever, that
those two or three INCHES of sub-soil
now lying dormant under tens OF thou
sands Of acres of poor land, it brought
to the surface and properly pulverized
and incorporated with the soil. would
be equally valuable with a costly ap,
plication of manure.
"lt is not contended that wonderful
results would be produced in euery poor
soil by the means above specified, but
where the Uirgi, soil has been fertile,
there, without doubt, may the consti-
tuents of rich earth be found, perhaps
boarding up for ages the very fat of the
land, and awaiting only the plow-share
to restore it to its destined uses.
GuaNo on SMALL GRAINs.-We have
experimental fully and fairly with qua
no on small grain crops the present
season. Our first application was to
rye. We plowed up an exhausted hill
side which was so SCARED with gullies.
that the front pair of mules in a team
Of four would be jumping one ditch
whilst those behind were leaping over
another. Two plowings made the old
hill slightly and in a situation to re-
ceive dressing Of two hundred pounds
OF guano TO the acre, which we plowed
in with the seed. The portion without
guano, which we left to test the appli-
cation, produced rye not exceeding two
feet high, whilst the rest of the land
yielded very heavy crop of grain on
stalk six feet high, which stood very
thick upon the soil. We made an ap>
plication of one hundred and fifty
poundsperaere to our entire wheat crop,
leaving small portions to which it was
not applied, to test its efficacy. On the
latter, the wheat was Indifferent, whilst
the rest has yielded a remarkably fine
crop of grain, which is plumper and
heavier than any we have ever grown.
On oats, of both spring and fall sowing,
it has shown its value to satisfactory
degree.
1t is on the oat crop that its fertiliz>
ing effects are the most apparent, and
we think the spring sowing somewhat
the best, as the other was perhaps in.
jured by the severe frosts. The sea-
sons, it is true, have been favorable to
the growth Of small grain crops, but we
give our endorsement from the percep-
tible difference ON land of equal pro-
ductiye capacity and Of similar prepa'
ration of soil which was, and was not,
fertilized with guano. 1t is our can
did opinion that one hundred pounds
OF the best quality of guano and five
bushels Of finely pulverized charcoal !,
thoroughly intermixed, applied to each
acre Of oats, wheat, rye or barley, on
ordinary land, well prepared by thu
rough aud deep plnwings to receive
the seed. will gchcrally double the