The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-11-23

atmosphere, while it furnishes loose and
warm bed for the roots to grow in.
| Deep culture is also indispensable. There is
scarcely plant which does not thrive much
better in loose, deep soil, than in shallow,
compact one but in no case is this fact suscep-
, tible of more ready veri6cation than of the corn
plant. One instance only may be cited to il
lustrate the effects of deep culture. There is
in the immediate vicinity of Columbus q tract
of ,Scioto bottom, land" which has for up
wards of forty years been cultivated in corn
annually. In 1851, Mr.. John L. Gill, of Co
lumbus, anxious to test the effect of deep cul-
ture on corn, .plowed eleven acres and about
three-fourths to depth of about eight inches,
with double plow, and then followed with a
sub-soil plow loosening but not turning up
the soil, to depth of about eight inches
more. This tract, as well as the neighboring
one, had never been plowedto depth exceed
ing six or seven inches. In 1851 the neigh
boring pieces were plowed the usual depth, and
planting completed on the 7th of May; Mr..
Gill completed the planting on the 10TH
| In the course of three weeks the corn in the
neighboriog tracts appeared forward and
thrifty as usual, while that of Mr.. Gill appeared
pale and rather dwarfed-this, to say the least,
was rather discouraging. But in the month of
July. that in the neighboring fields appeared to
have come to a "stand still, the leaves curled
tations of suffering from drought, while Mr..
ellis was growing vigorously, and indicated
| no latk of moisture. The result was that Mr..
G.. obtained 120 bushels per acre, while the
/ adjoining fields yielded less than forty bushels
per acre. This fact is well authenticated, and
the field was witnessed in July and August by
thousands of persons.
While the stalks in Mr.. G.'s tract presented
pale and sickly appearance, the roots were
pushing downward in search of moisture and
nourishment; finding abundance of this, suf-
fcient supply was stored for the growth of the
plant to resist all effects of drought. That in
the neighboring fields exhausted the supply at
first, and when the drought set in it had no
store of supply to fall back upon.
The man OF science has finally determined
as the result of his experiments, that plants to
grow healtbily and properly, require new sur
faces of the soil to be presented to the roots,
from which to draw nourishment. The prac-
tical farmer has learned in an empirical man.
ner that to hoe corn by hand or towork it with
a cultivator, increases the growth of the plant
as well as its productiveness. Now, in doing
this he does precisely what all 'fbook-farming"
lays dom as a fundamental rule namely, that
at certain periods of the growth of the plant,
it requires new surfaces OF soil on which to op-
crate. Following out this system of book farm
ing, Mr.. Smith, of Lois Weldon, in England,
loosons the soil to the depth Of about 80 inch
es, and plants his wheat In rows one foot apart.
He plants three such rows, then leaves space
of 4 feet then again plants three rows. This
wheat he cultjvates with horse hoe, much the
some as we do corn, and his harvests yield him
at the rate of about 80 bushels per acre. His
wheat never suffers from drought or nlildew,
or any other of the hundreds of maladies to
which the wheat plant is subject.
Different soils reouirn dif iffnrnnt N, IN oocrr
This is proposition SO plain that it needs to
be mentioned only to be at once sanctioned
Some soils require lining, on other soils line
acts injarieusly; hence it is necessary for the
farmer to know precisely what kind of soil he
is to manage. He therefore should be geclo-
gist enough to know the origin of the soil he
is working.
Many of the auditors here to-day, may think
that human knowledge has been unable to de-
termine the origin of Soils Geologists were
convinced that sand and gravel were fragments
of larg' rocks which had become disintgrated,
and this fact led them to believe that clay, the
actual basis of all soils, was only finely commi-
nuted portions of some other rock-the manu-
facture of porcelain ware from certain clays,
proved the identity of clay with feldspar, a well
known primitive rock of igneous origin. Now
this one fact was an important link in the chain
of investigation.
Much of the qualities as well as of the con-
stituents of clay may be determined by tracing
it to its origin. Possibly it may cause little
surprise to state that the soft and plastic clay
is derived from GRANITE, which is proverbial
for its unyielding hardness and frmness.
Granite is composed of three and sometimes
four distinct substances, namely: white lus-
trous mineral named feldspar white, gener-
ally Opaque, one, known as quartz, and one
whose lustre is more or less pearly, and color
varying from a transparent white to dark OIL
i've green, and is susceptible of being divided in
to thin flexible lamina; this latter is known as
mica; and dark bottle-gree mineral, known as
horm6lende. With the exception of quartz
and oxide of iron, feldspar is the most gener-
ally diffused mineral. 1t consists Of
Silica $3.50
Alumina 1915
Potassa 11.50
Oxide of Iron ------- LIS
Water ---.---- Is
Lime -------------a trace.
1926
Quartz is nearly pure silicic acid. The fine
white sand found in the beds of streams is