The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1869-09-16
AGRICULTURE E.
DEEP CULTURE.
In Relation to the Retention Of Moisture
IN AraJe Lands.


IN AraJle Lands.
Deep digging, trenching and subsoil
ploughing, says the Edinburg (Scot-
land) Farmer, are the means for pre-
serving the moisture in the soil during
heat and drought. There are not
wanting many evidences that the seve-
ral acts of husbandry stated under this
head are advantageous on every des-
scription of land, even the most water
logged fields. But, draining is a sine
qua non in such fields, an operation
fiat has been descr;ptively defined
by Major McInvoy as "underground
irrigation" "Iconsider," says he, "the
most perfect system to be that which
allows air and water to pass freely
through the soil with their dissolving
and fertilizing properties. Previous to
draining and deep stirring, chemical
action is very much confined to one
stratum of soil-namely, where the air
Is neither excluded nor free, and where
it is neither dry nor wet (speaking in
commonplace words.) Subsequently
the laws of composition and decomposi-
tion have full play, and their effects are
diffused throughout the whole mass of
soil. In an essay published several
years since,.a gravelly, open subsoil.-
The subsoil plough, which was drawn
by two horses in the track of the COM
mon (for which the Marquis of Tweed.
dale offered prize it was said "that
in every instance drainage gave de-
eided advantage in the increase of tenn
perature, except only in Summer, when
a heavy fall of rain was found to lower
the temperature of drained land more
than undrained," which is evidently an
advantage to hot, parched soil.
The writer subsoiled nearly 100 acres
Of light, thin, incoherent soil, con-
sisting of a small portion of black earth,
with gravel and sand resting on plough,
stirred the ground to the depth of twelve
or fourteen inches. The weak point Of
the land so treated was its dryness, for
even moderate heat and drought scorch-
ed whatever crops were grown ; but we
found the process beneficial, the crops
more abundant and less liable to suffer
from an arid atmosphere. The rain wa
ter did not pass so rapidly away, and we
ascribe this to the subsoil ploughing
shutting up the grooves and channels
through which the water has dccended
for untold ages.
For this explanation VIC have been
several times taken to task by intelli-
gent agriculturists, who affirmed that
subsoiling opened instertial places for
the more rapid descent of water. Such,
we believe, is the result of the operation
in retentive bottoms.
The pulverizing of the soil also con-
tributes to the retention of moisture -
We were in this point a follower of
Jethro Tull, and is was the perusal of
his writings that set US to work. He
pronounced the opinion that pulvcri-
zation was the one great idea of success
full farming. When large cavities a.
bound in land, plants suffer more in dry
weather than with minute pores. This
proposition seems to be self-evident, but
it has often been disputed, as conterven-
ing a law of capillary action that the
ascent of the water is in the inverse
proportion of the diameter of the tube.
Now, it cannot be denied that a fine
division of the soil is analogous to small
capillary tubes; but one fact is fairly
overlooked in this reasoning, namely,
that the fine, small particles of soils con
pacted together, exclude largely the air
atoms, and thus prevent the full evapora-