Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1860-09-19
a6RaGNgGel3Ag Y.
y.,e Eaests of Deepening the Soil.

LII
Last week We referred TO the necessity Oh
leepeuing ,hst portion Of the soil which Is
nsed 10 grow crops, as enc Of requirements
Of the timcs This work seems to be grow
inc more and more in favor with every intel
roeut farmer They are looking upon 1t with
more favor, and are beginning to inquire
.shere the tools may be had with which the
york NAV he performed. In conversing with
n very observeut farmer on the subject few
davs since. he Observed that so far as his ex-
perience went the average depth of pIo"'ng
throughout the State. snd certainly through
his neighborhood. seldom averaged more than
six inches 10 depth. sometimes seven but the
latter depth was exceptionabie lie was con
sinced also by actual experience of his own
that even on graveliy loam soils, the supSoii
became so ind1rated and packed by the tramp
ling of rbe team and the pressure or the plow
against it. that after few pioughiDgs the
ernst thus formed was not only impervIous
n the atmospheric influence, but he has found
it alse to become as late and as cold as stlti
cIay, for the surface water was held by 1t and
did not pass of readily in the spring For
these reasons he had almost come to the deter
-,ipation 70 try the effect of the subsoll
pow-
It must be borne in mind that the work OF
subsoiing is not to be done each year bat that
its necessity is only felt once in the rotation
For instance field is fallowed for wheat
cron. the wheat to be followed by clover, the
clover by wheat, and the wheat BY grass for
bav for four years; we have the whole ex-
pense Of subsoiling spread over series OF
six or seven yeas, during which the success
siye crops get the Seneft of the subsoiling
process.
When this work has been carried out in
connection with draining it has more than
doubled the value of the land, and the best
of this is not only in the superior value of the
crop. but also In the increased rent charged
for land which has been once made to produce
by the mere work which has been expended
in deepening the soil. In fact the deepening
of the soil is the same to the farmer as IN
creasing bank capital of merchant, it ia
ciliates every operation that is carried on,
and gives the command of more land, that
every land it renders more productive, because
it renders it earlier. so that every crop which
is sown or planted gets the benefit of the
whole growing season. The land with an
Increased depth of worked soil. being more
susceptible to the influence of heat, aud pro-
wing to be warmer as well as dryer, and this
point alone IN our short season is not to be
too highly estimated. Henry Stephens in
the account of the results of deep culture
undertaken on the estates of the Mar
quis of Tweedale, one of the most distin-
guished Scottish agriculturists, relates the re-
suits in whole series of fields. but We ex-
tract but one as an example He says The
long Gents field contained sixteen acres, of a
sandy clay soil aud sub'oil, it was in cats in
1913, and produced at the rate of thirty sew
en- bushels TO the acre; and in 1919 it was
bare fallowed and subsoiled; in 1850 it yiel-
ded thirty one bushels of wheat to the acre
ia 1851 and 1852 it was in grass, but the
next spring it was plowed to the dep,a of
fifteen inches with the Tweedale plow. and
produced sixty and one fourth bushls to the
acre" From this single example we may
easily draw the inference that if deep culture
has such al effect in the moist, cool climate
Of Scotland in ours, where vegetation has
the benefit of a dryer and warmer tempera-
ture, and under ordinary circumstance comes
forward SO rapidly it would be found equally
as profitable Michigan Farmer