Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1869-01-08
Horace Greeley on Flowing.

| Farmers Club Of the American Institute
"Many controversies arise from imper-
feet definitions The same words, the
same phrases convey different ideas 10 the
rival disputants. Let me begin, then, by
making myself clearly understood. To
save time, | will define by negation or ex-
clusion Ms follows: All soils do not re.
hguire .plowing TO the same depth because,
l. A large portion of the earth's surface
should never be plowed at all. No wet
lands should be plowed until thoroughly,
permanently drained. Flowing them
while still wet, or certain 10 become 80 az.
ter rains, is throwing labor away. A very
large area, consisting of swamps, marches,
bogs, fens, lake, river, brook margins, or
intervalos frequently submerged or soddeD,
should never be plowed until drained or
embanked. 2. Then great proportion of
the rocky hillsides or Crests, which consists
mainly of rocks thinly covered by and Of.
ten protruding through the soil, should
be kept always In forest, from which tim.
Der Is taken from time TO time, but never
to such extent as TO reveal its ruggedness.
| Westchester county alone has thousands
of acres, now denudod and devoted 10
grazing, which should never have been
| cleared. Cut off the timber, if you are not
content with cutting out, but keep such
rsugh land always In wood. It's cultiva-
ton can never pay It's grass is burnt up
by sultry week while stripping II of
timber tends TO render our springs and
streams scanty and capricious. There is
nothing worse in our rural economy than
this uucovering of rocky sleeps that ought
| forever 20 remain timbored 9. There
are, moreover, lands too sterile to be cul-
tivated with profit, at least while so much
| good land lies idle and useless These
lands are often level enough, and not too
| stony but IL will cost more To bring them
| TO proper state Of fertility than they will
then be worth Some Of these might be,
and probably ought forthwith to be- sowed
with nuts and treo.seed and 30 covered
with timber probably the plow might be
advantageously used in the process but
it would be unwiso to subject them to other
culture for ages yet, If ever. Then there
are lands which have good though shall.
low surface soil, but covering n poisonous
ubsoil, which must not be disturbed
Prof Mapes found such tract in West
jersey, where u stratum OF sulphate oflron
(copperas) lay but eight inches below the
surface. To plow into this, and mix il
with the surface soil, arrested vegetation
altogether. 8 And again there are soils,
mainly alluyial, at once so mellow and fer
tile that the roots of the cereals and most
plants will pcrmcate and draw sustenance
from them though they are never distur-
bed by the plOw ! presume the annually
Hooded intervalc of the Nile is of this
class. | judge that the valley south of
Maysvillc Gal, annually covered many
feet deep by the turbid floods of the Yuba,
TOlber, and American rivers, is much of
the same There are portions of the inter
vale of the Illinois where the muck is six
teen feet deep, very loose and rich. was
told In California that the grape, though
It had to be watered sparingly during the
first two summers, needed no irrigation
thereafter in tho valleys of that State,
though they are dried up in summer to
the depth of several feet The roots strike
down through the rich loan below till
they find n moisture that they can appro-
pirate and thrive upon. Judge that the
valley of the Sacramento and its numer.
GUS tributaries is often bored to the depth
of four or five feet
81 have thus fully conceded that deep
plowing Is not everywhere requisite.
Now let me show where and why il is
needed; /. 1t has been abundantly dem
onstrated that the roots of plants are of
ten found at distance Of several feet
from them. Any of us may have seen
that this is rs true of Indian corn as of
Canada thistles. With microscope and
due patience, the roots of wheat may be
traced from four to six feet OF course
these roots seek nourishment and find it,
Nature in the broa view, makes no abor,
! tive, at least no wanton effort Roots
wander in search of food not otherwise TO
be found. ,. Our subsoils are generally
compact and repellant. Wherever n
ditcher would naturally use pick, there
| l. al ~.
slowly and by wasting effort. Few or no
cereals or edible roots can feed and flour
ish ON the penetration of such subsoils
And while our sands or looser gravcls are
more easily traVersed, they seldom con.
tain the plant food whereof the roots are
In search. They either remain unpen.
etrated, or the effort is unrewarded by any
gain of nutrition to the plant. 3.
Our summers and autumns are
often pcrsistently hot and dry.
The continuously torrid suns,
which this year destroyed half the later
crops of Europe, are here encountered ms
often as every third year. Drouth is one
of the foremost causes of the failure of our
crops. Our ancestors mainly migrated
hither from the British Isles, from Hol.
land, and the coasts of Northern and
| Western Europe, where humidity is the
rule, protracted drouth the exception.
Sixteen inches of soil In our climate is
hardly equal, rs an antdotc to drouth, to
six inches in ireland and Holland. And
yet the best farmers of those countries
agree in commencing deeper blowing.
1. What we advocate is not the burying
of the vegetable mold or natural surface
cod under several inches of cold, lifeless
clay, sand or gravel, If the subsoil is not
TO be enriched, IL may better remain a
subsol. but that does not prove that IL
ought not to be lIned, stirred, aersted,
pulverized. The right thing to do is TO
enrich as well as mellow and aerate the
entire soil 10 the depth of fully eighteen
inches though twelve may answer as q
| beginning. Use Michigan or suhsoil
pillow, if you will, and keep the various
strata where nature placed them. But
give your plants, like your cattle, chance
20 reach food and drink at all times Let
down the bars that would keep them from
the life-giving springs O. Plants look
to the soil for (O anchorage; (9)
moisture (S) most Of their food. III
| they cannot find these more certainly in
twelve 20 eighteen inches Of soil than in
six, then reason is fool, mathematics a
| cOnjectural science, and a farmer should
prefer balance In bank to his credit Of
SVVV " NAN "a NAtVNN' " VIC arc tuli
that the roots prefer 10 run near the sur
face, loving the warmth of the sun. Let
them run there, then. We do not hinder
them. Make the soil rich as well as deep,
and let them run near the surface for
warmth and descend for moisture, or both,
as they shall see tit, We prefer them free,
dom ot choice. IL wet season attracts
them 10 the surface, dry Que must con,
strain them to dive for moisture tits our
duty so TO provide that they may flourish
however wayward the season. Z. | have
a steep hillside, which | chose 10 cultivate,
the soil being warm and kind. Plow this
six inches deep, and the first hard shower
sweeps its soil by cart loads into the brook
below, where il is useless. Plow il twice
as deep and not peck of soil will be
flooded off in lifetime. g. In wet sea.
-, Ann.. r.ln.-ln o. Anna ~ Tho ,.nral M II I'm.