Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1868-12-30
Deep Flowing.


depth Of ten or twelve inches than upon that
ploweI to the depth Of five or six inches.
These remarks having been printed in the
Tribune, attracted the attention of farmers in
various sections, whose experience proved
that however promising Mr.. Groely's theory
might look, it would prove a failure when
carried into practice. These rcmonstrancos
were so numerous that the club appointed q
committee of theoretical farmers to visit va
rious agricultural sections and learn the prae-
ticc Of the best farmers. This committee
made a report at a recent meeting of the club,
in which they state that they visited various
farms in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and
found the practice among the farmers to be
that of blowing from three to FIVE inches.
One field of thirty acres, planted to corn,
"was said to have been, and they believe was,
upon examination" plowed only three inches
deep.
"The corn was Of good size for the season.
The drought and heat at this time was ex-
IRENE, but the corn blades were not curled or
rolling but remained green down to the roots
and had not suffered any apparently from the
dry weather, while clover field adjoining,
of the second crop, was suffering severely.
We examined the soil, and found unmistaka-
bic proof that a very large portion of the
roots certainly nine-tenths of them, were i'm
beded in the sod within three inches of the
surface, while but a small part were found
below. Some were found as low as twelve
inches thus showing conclusiyely that in a
| dry time large portion of the roots form
| ing O complete network, were imbelded in
the sod near the surface to seize upon the
! fertilizers in the soil and on the small rains
and dews from the atmosphere and the moist
ure brought up from below by the heated
SUFFICE OF the ground for the support of the
plants, AID thereby prevent oyaporation
We visited next the farm of Allen Wal
lace, four miles northward, in Pilesgrove.
near Woodstown. His corn was good and
green down to the roots, with but little roll
ling. He informed US he began thirty-fve
years ago, with raising only seven bushels of
sound corn per acre, or less than two hundred
bushels on thirty acres. The next year ten
bushels per acre, and by 1910 he had increased
his crop from less than two hundred to six
hundred or seven hundred bushels. The
farm was then divided, he retained one-third,
and he has since raised much more on that
third, than he did before the division on ALL
His corn crop has been, for the last fifteen or
twenty years past, from two and a half to
four loads Of ears per acre, according to the
season, Of twenty-five bushels shclod corn
each. He gave it as his experience, that he
succeeded bottcr by blowing rather under
than over FIVE inches deep, having tried
both"
On the farm Of Aaron Lippincott, very
successful farmer, the committee found the
best field Of corn they ever saw, and his ex-
perence was that he never succeeded well
with corn, until his hired man plowed field
for corn only four inches deep, from which he
gathered his first good crop Of corn he says
he does not want land plowed more than four
inches deep for him"
Another farmer said to the committee that
while he was away from home his men plowed
a field of stiff sod so shallow that he feared |
when dry weather came the corn would burn
or dry up. But when dry weather did set in,
after the middle of summer it remained |
green and Furnishing, while in much that was
plowed deeper the corn rolled badly. His
was not plowed three inches deep, and they
had to scrape up the grass roots to get dirt
to cover the corn.
The same committee also visited the IA
nous Brandywino Hills, which are used for
pasturage, and they found that the best gra-
zing land was that which was never plowed, |
while they we're compelled to admit that the
crop Of corn, on three acres which they ex-
amined, had increased just in proportion as
the farmers had diminished the depth of plow- |
ing. Mr.. Greeley was hardly convinced, by
the report of the committee, that shallow
blowing was best, and promised to read a
paper upon that subject at some future day. |
Mr.. George Geddes, one of the best farmers
in the country, after listening to the report of
the committee made the following remarks,
which were listened to with deep atten-
ton -
People never seem to realize that, because
they see no roots there are none. | have
dug down in hard clay soil and found fbrous
roots. People too little understand the nature
of the roots of plants, how they grow and
what are their requirements. | have seen
clover rccts three feet long gather in masses
over the share Of a dull plough. The Canada
thistle is great subsoiler. BY the way, in
all my farming, | have never been able to
kill the Canada thistle, and have never seen
it killed. 1t has many and long roots, and
have raised very heavy wheat where it had
grown. Now as regards farming and as re-
CARDS blowing, | want to know every fact. be-
fore | would depart from the teachings of my
life, now reaching nearly three score, before /
would believe in shallow blowing. Original
" the soil my farm was most unpromising
and when my father selected it, he was laughed
at because it was a naked shale, producing no
vegetation whatever, except scrub oak aud
pine and that he should select such land,
when there was a vast wilderness to choose
from, was a wonder But there, since the
close Of the last century, and in forty-three
degrees of latitude, we have grown good crops
and used no other manure than clover and
plaster and the sleeps foot, which, the Span
lard says, changes to gold. 1t is true we do
not raise such corn as is before us we could
not do it in our short seasons; we raise a
short kind, and for seventy years, with clover
and plaster we have raised seventy-fye bush
els of sheled corn to the acre do not say
that others can do the same thing. 1t is a
mistake to give rules for all. The best adj
vice | can give to young farmer, or to any
one proposing changes, is that he feel his way.
Now, we live in salt region, and some farm
ers think that salt is great fertilizer, and
they always apply it to wheat, but, in my
experience, cannot see that it is of any
value. My advice to all farmers, and to be-
ginners in particular, the world over, is try
all things seek to find out that which is
good and abide by il. When | dug my cell
lar fifty feet square, / scattered the excaya-
ton over large surface, and | grew as large
I Al. l..