Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1857-10-02
From the Country Gentleman.
Management of Hard-pan Soils.

scc IN the Sth November no., page sol f,
Of the Country Gentleman. an inquiry rcla-
tive to hard.pan. In my humble opinion
there Is no better way for farmers 10 derive
great advantages from agricultural papers,
than to ask and answer questions, aud that
frequently and freely, bui our friend from
llarwinton, Conn, wants You OF some "sci.
CntiGc correspondent To answer. There
appears to be some difficulty hero however
well many Others might, With myself, an-
swcr practically, We cannot do 1t scicntiii-
cally. pcrhnp, we have nycr seen cru
cible. We know nothing Il chemistry con-
ncctcd with agriculture. However, as !
have introduced the subject, | will try to
answer it-not what the hari-pau spoken
Of .. composed Of, bu. tho bos, method %
decomposc il, and make It peryioas to mir
and water. II the gentleman means that
the harl.pan is one and onc-mlf TO two feet
below the surface soil, as IA the case in
many places, ho cannot do mich with Il,
nor will it do much; but II ho means that
the Grsi one and one.hall to two bet is hard
pan, like frozen ground, then IL Is q hard
iIb, and such ne have never s,n any at
t1mpt made TO till. | have seen AMI i'm.
proved land, having below the tol soil Of
four, five, six or seven inches, as many or
morc inches OF hari.ran below Wherever
the plow will reach theharl.pan, the deeper
it is broke up the better and the onlypro'
pr timo % DO it is late in the tall, aflor.hc
earth has become well saturated with dc
tail rains. Although lam opposed to W.T.
pl0wiuc ia the summer, don't care how
wet, la,o ia the fall, when not 90 be worked
or sowcl in the f.ll. have found that five
good horss-thrco in one p!ow and two in
the othcr-thc first turning lurrow Of L.
inches Wide and 10 70 II dccp-witb the
second plow. either subs1il VI narrow two
horsc, 60 as dccp as possible. | have used
in preference, the two.hor'' pl1w, Tor the
reason it exposes more Of the sub,1il to the
action Of thc frost What thousands and
thousands Of dollars would Jack Frost be
worth TO many ilrm5r,, IL they would only
give him something t. 30. IL, works cheap.
be ask, nothing. Al tha men in the world
cannot make such machine. Just let him
look at it this hard still ,ul-s5ll and hard
pan. Throw il down on tho surface. and
Boz will tear and crumblc lbl mpllly il.
aud make it pcr,ious to water and air It
will then begomc friendly, aud mix up with
the adjoining and 50 deepen the slil and
improve ii. don't know or ono farm IN
four times what it would cost to slhsoil it
properly. ltnot only gives q greater ransc
Tor ihe supply Of food Tor plants, bu! in case
or great rain, IL will sink down, and not
lay on the -arracc 70 sald tho grain and
bake aud harden the earth. II Is surely
well known to every man of observation
and experience that to raise large crops
there mus, be a deep rich soil, ani wherever
there is tenacious stid clay near the sur.
face. that cant be- done. Much depends on
tie nature OF the soil, whether the deep tall
blowing will benefit - much or not. II
the land j. composed of a large proportion
OF ani aud alluyial clay, hyins r'r'i'u' to
water, it may be plowcl deep at any time.
But where ther, Is larsr proportion OF
s,iT clay, and abo,call il there be harl.pau,
by all means turn it . Jack Frost very
dacp. any time from the Gr,i OF November
to New Years. wv. IOpp.
Utica Mills, Nd.