Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-04-25
VOL. XVIII.
FARMING OPERATIONS MADE PROFIT
ABLE-No. IL.
From the New England Fartner.l

DEAR SIR Having in former communi-
cation answer your first and second interogato-
ries, now proceed to those in your third Sec
tion, which with the PREDATORY statements, are
as follows:
81 always had fondness for farming, but
circumstances in early life turned me into 9TH
er pursuits. At length | have resumed my ia
vorite occupation, and desire to make pleas
ant rural home. l have means TO farm it as l
please. but still, as a business man, and on
principle too, wish to so manage as to farm
for a profit and set useful example to others.
| am willing to make any judicious investment
in the improvement of the soil itself that will
as a practical business operation pay a fair re-
turn. With this brief preface would say that
the tage land of my farm has been rather su-
pcrfciay cultivated, and the surface soil is
good deal worn. | have not much practical
experience in regard to Soils but it has seemed
to me that the subsoil should be taken into ac-
count in Judging of the character and capacity
Of land. | have examined the subsoil in vari-
Gus places, and find it to be a stiff and close
brown or yelowish loan, and usually packed
down hard. How shall | proceed with this
land, what kinds of plowing do | want, how
deep shall / pillow, how cultivate afterwards,
and in short, what plan of improving husband
ry shall pursue to make it productiveP"
am pleased to learn that "at length you
have resumed your favorite occupation; and l
certainly wish you much enjoyment in its pur-
suit and every success in making for yourself
"a pleasant rural home" How much deep
meaning those sweet words convey What
can be more charming, or refining TO character,
than ga pleasant rural home" amid the lovely
and grand and improving scenes and influences
of nature, and with the peculiar means and in
elements it affords for the cultivation ofthe in
teect and affections What earthly influences
more potent than these to promote that virtue
and intelligence which emphatically fit one to
be worthy citizen of the Republic, and low
er and firm defender of his country.
The ends which you propose to yourself in
farming are far more commendable There is
much sound sense in the wish you express to
make your farming judicous business opera
ton, and in this respect a good example for
others to initiate and when a man has arrived
at the conclusion that he is willing, as you ex-
press it, ''to make any judicous investments in
the improvement of the soil itself, that will, as
practical business operation, pay fairreturn,"
he has struck the very keynote of successful
farming This is a much wiser course to pur-
sue than that which demands the uttermost
farthing that can be wrung from the farm, to
be sequestered from it and invested at interest
or in matters outside of farming, leaving the
land nearly or quite unrequitted for its efforts
at production, and at length poor rundown
farm, worth but fraction of what it would
have been by liberal usage, either to keep, or
to bequeath to heirs, or to sell.
You are correct in the impression that "the
subsoil should be taken into account in Judging
of the character and capacity OF land. Land is
to a considerable extent valuable in proportion
| al IL, ,f, ,tp ,hupi
most any land can be brought up to a certain
medium degree of excellence. But when you
wish to go beyond that, you will find some
trouble and expense in doing it with land that
has naturally poor suhsoi Land with n
loose, coarse, sandy or gravelly subsoil quickly
feels the parching influence of hot suns and dry
weather, does not hold ferlilizing matters ap-
piled to the soil very WELL ard when laid down
to grass does not last long in highly produc-
tive condition. 1t may be improved, it is true,
but it is not easy by ordinary means and meth
ods to carry it beyond certain fair medium
degree of excellence. Land with subsoil con-
tanning qualities poisonous to the roots Of cul-
tivated crops is quite difficult of high degree
of improvement. But land with strong
unctuous, e-grained subsoil of loan or of
clay loan, that holds fertiizing matter well,
and on suitable exposure to the atmosphere
slakes or disintegrates willingly, so that it is
susceptible of fine mellow tilih, may be i'm
proved rapidly and to high order of produc-
ton, and that without extraordinary means or
expense.
From your description judge it not un-
likely that you have a better farm underneath
than that on top which has became so worn by
shallow tage. Such n subsoi as you describe,
brought to the surface by deep blowing, and
enlivened by atmospheric influence, high ma
ruring and thorough cultivation, and mixed
with the older surface SOIL will make you a
deep friable soil, and superb tilth Of land, pro-
ducing greater crops than the land ever bore
by shallow tillagc even though well manured,
indeed even greater than when ii was new from
the stump. | can show you instances whore
this deep kind of tilage has so increased the
products of land as to make it necessary to in
crease the barn storage very much. deeply
worked soil has several advantages over a shall
low one; it better withstands the peculiaiites
OF too wet or too dry season it is easier to
TIL III after cultivation, from the greater depth
of mellow earth thus induced; the roots of
vegetation have stronger hold upon the soil
and the crops standing iirmer on tie ground,
= are not so easily injured by winds and storms
the manure may be suitably inclosed in mellow
earth near the surface, where it is more active
IN It's effects on soil and crop than though it
had to be turned under the sod or else left on
:. top, as would be the case by shallow breaking
< up; subsequent tlage mixing the manure
through the deeply y-mellowed soil it has great
e or and more lasting effect upon the land and
when the land is laid down to grass, it holds
= out longer in productive moving, because th,
roots having deeper range, do not so soor
E become entangled in web near the surface
:, and the sod is not so "bound out"
IN With such subsoil as yours YOU may al
6 once plow at eight or nine inches deep, where
-, you apply say twenty-five cart loads Of compos
- PER acre, and ten inches deep if you put OIL
thirty to forty loads. lfyour facilities for ma
nure will allow you to give the land forty load
- per acre, that amount applied will improve tn,
" land rapidly and pay you well. lsuppose youi
land has not been plowed heretofore more thar
o o six or seven inches deep. You will therefore
ID by increasing the depth, as above named, turn
up two or three inches of subSoil to mix viii
the old surface soil by after cultivation. An,
. tae commencement Of the next rotation crops
or after the land has been laid to moving ant
needs breaking up again, you can plow ten t.
twelve snches deep, il you choose and by th
le time you will have secured deeply-worket
Al soil that will produce to suit you. Whereye
your subsoil is poor, or INCLINED to be sand,
al or gravelly, however, and the surface soil i
loose and hungry, the process of deepening tn
\. tth must necessarily be more gradual bring
ing up not more than an inch or SO of the low
y er soil at each rotation Of crops, and manurn
! that generously. Good Judgment must presid
a's n,,arotiopg in tltu livocti,n ot,1 tn