The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1869-03-23
Deep PIoughing.
A PAPER READ BY HORACE GREELEY BE
FoRD THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FAR
AER's CLUB, DECEMBER !, 1868.

Many controversies result from imper-
feet definitions. The same words, the
same phrases, convey different ideas to
the rival disputants. Let me begin,
then, by making myself clearly under
stood To save time I will define by
negation or exclusion-as folloms:
All soils do not require blowing to
the same depth; because
I. A large portion of the earth's sur
face should never be plowed at all. No
wet lands should be plowed until thor
oughly, permanently drained; blowing
them while still wet, or certain to be
come 90 after rains, is throwing labor
away. A very large area, consisting of
swamps, marshes, boys, fens, sea, lake,
river and brook margins or intervales
frequently submerged, or sodden, should
never be plowed until drained or en-
banked.
II. Then . great proportion OF the
rocky hillsides or crests, which consist
mainly Of rocks thinly covered by an Of
ten protruding through the soil, should
never be plowed, but should always be
kept in forest from which timber is to
ken from time to time, but never to such
an extent as to reveal its ruggedness.
Westchester County alone has thousands
of acres, now demanded and devoted to
grazing, which should never have been
cleared. Cut off the timber, if you are
not content with cutting out, but keep
such rough land always in wood. It's
cultivation can never pay; its grass is
burnt up by . sultry week, while strip
ping it of timber tends TO render our
springs and streams scanty and capri
cious. There is nothing worse in our
rural economy than this uncovering of
rocky sleeps that ought to remain tim
bered evermore.
III. There are moreover, lands too
sterile to be cultivated with profit, at
least while SO much good land lies idle
and useless These lands are often level
enough and not too stony: but it 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 tree. seeds, and so covered
with timber; probably the pillow might
be advantageously used in the process
but it would be unwise to subject them
TO other culture for ages yet, if ever.
w Then there are lands which have
good though shallow surface soil, but
covering q poisonous subsoil, which
must not be disturbed. Prof. Mapes
found such tract in w est jersey, where
stratum of Sulphate of Iron (copperas
lay but eight inches below the surface.
To pillow into this, and mix it with the
surface soil, arrested vegetation alto
gether.
V. And again: There are soils, main
ly ailuvial, ut once so mellow and so fer
tile that the roots of the cereals, and OF
most plants, will permeate and draw sus
tenance from them though they are
never disturbed by the pillow. 1 presume
the sunnally Hooded intervale of the Nil.
is of this class. judge the valley south
Of Marysville, California, annually GOV
cred many feet deep by the turbid floods
Of the Yuba, Feather and American riv
ers, il much the same. There are por-
tions OF the -intervale of the Illinois
where The muck is sixteen feet deep
very Loose and rich. was told in Cali