The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-05-09

another, which deserves to be set
down as the second great vice of
our system, VIZ:
IMPERFECT TILLAGE.
This also is patent to everybody,
and yet is universally prevalent.
Our soils are neither properly plow-
ed nor properly drained. The or
binary depth of cultivation is three
to five inches, only the best farmers,
one here and there, going beyond
that; and usually the soil is not
~pulverized even to that depth. Now
when these figures are trebled, and
Il rational system of under-draInage
1--WE have one now is introduced,
New England will be left SO far
behind is never to be thought of
of again IN comparison. These
processes are the only ean by
which access can be given to the
atmosphere, the rain and the frost,
charged with those chemical and
and mechanical forces and fertiliz-
ingredients which are absolutely
necessary to maintain the soil IN
proper condition for the elabora-
ton of plant food. These are also
the only means of averting the dis
astrouS effects, both of drought and
excessive moisture, incidents so
common to u irregular climate,
and from both of which our crops
have suffered SO severely for three
or four years past; the corn crop of
this year being more than forty per
cent. below the average, and In
some of the western and northern
counties not less than sixty. A
proper system of tillage would have
prevented the larger part of this
heavy loss, which cannot be less
than seven or eight millions of
bushels. 1t may seem to some par
adoxical to ascribe so opposite eff
fects to the same cause. Neverthe-
less, it is demonstrably so. The
only part of the State where [ have
see the forests seriously affected
by the late drought known as
the Meadows, in Rockingham
county, a nigh and fertile tract of
twenty-five or thirty miles, but so
flat and of SO tenacious a subsoil that
in ordinary seasons it is hardly ever
free from standing water. These
soils also suffered most from the
excessive rains of Spring; and here
are some of the poorest crops to be
found in the State, though ON the
best lands. Precisely similar facts
are reported by the Agricultural
Department at Washington, from
the whole Atlantic slope and the
Mississippi basin to the Rocky
Mountains. 1t is true that a large
part of our soils are of SO favorable
q texture and situation that they do
not need understanding, but most
of our best lands, the alluvious and
tenacious uplands, will never put
forth half their strength until sub
jected to this process, as we'll as to
u deeper and more thorough me-
chanical division.
| have said that this defective
tillage is largely due to the first
great error, the attemptto cultivate
too much land: it is also due, in no
small measure, to what | shall set
down, for conveniency, as the third
vice Of our agriculture, viz:
THE USE OF INFERIOR IMPLEMENTS.
Some of the plows for example,
in common use III the interior and
i. western counties are of SO primitive
a type as to merit a place in the
Archaeological Hall of the Agri-
cultural Department at Washing
ton, along with the forked stick
used by the aborigines and the Pol
ynesians. The last decade or two
have witnessed an immense advance
in this branch of agriculture, both
in the way of invention and of i'm
provement. The mathematical
principles of the pillow, forexample,
first clearly conceived and distinct
ly enunciated by Thomas Jeffer-
son, have only lately been worked
out practically by Gov. Holbrook,
Collins and others, in the produc-
ton of an implement as much SUI
perior to our common bull-tongue
and shovel, as the rail a is to the
old time road wagon. And then
there are besides these, whole class
e s of implements, many of them of
recent invention, such as seed plan
tiers, cu~ltivators, p%ulverizers, gang
plows, etc., which are entirely un-
known to the mass of our farmers:
to say nothing of those more i'm
portant inventions, the mower,
reaper, etc., which are revolution
izing the whole business of agricul-
ture, the world over. | do MOI
think this Agricultural Society
nan oharno itself with a mora mnor