The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-25
DEEP S%UBSOILING.
A Plea for Intensive Farming In the
South.
atlanta Consultation

atlanta Consultation
In the history of agriculture, as hand
ed down from legends, when our fallen
race had been elected from the delight
some garden, and the unalterable fat
had been issued, to earn bread by the
sweat of the face, then the cultivation of
the soil commenced.
The first known implements for breek.
ing the ground, for the planting of seeds
were crude plows fashioned from sharp
eped propgs Of wood, and, later on as the
art advanced, more effective plows were
made by the addition of pointed pieces
of iron attached to the wood.
Now, in this advanced nineteenth Gen.
fury we have great varieties of shspely
steel plowshares with cunningly formed
points and mouldboards to turn up and
subsoil the fields and where horse power
has failed the necessary ~draught, steam
machinery has been introduced to effect
the purpose.
After a lapse of 5000 years, the average
farmer scarcely reaches the depth of six
inches, and the deepest subsoilins rarely
exceeds twelve inches, and in no case
more than eighteen inches is accomplish.
ed, except by an expensive mode of
t~renching, which has been adopted profit.
ally by a few enterprising gardeners.
1t is generally admitted that the deep.
er the subsoil is broken the greater the
absorption of rainfalls, and the more
moisture will be retained and held in re-
serve for the supply ofthe CROPS when the
summer droughts are on, and also, the
greater the absorption Of these rainfalls
the less the soil is liable to escape to the
water courses, and every intelligent and
practical farmer must admit that the deep
breaking of the grounds, especially in
our stiff and arid clay lands, is the great
desideratum.
Every practical tiller of the soil will
admit that If constant moisture can be
secured through the dry seasons that a
corresponding quantity of fertilizers can
be supplied proftably to the growing
crops, and the greater the range and
amount of nutriment consumed by the
searching r~ootlets the more powerful and
perfect the plant will mature, and con-
sequently the greater the production of
crops.
We make the unqualified assertion
upon sure and scientific principles, that
an acre of land may be persuaded, under
favorable circumstances, to produce ten,
twenty and even thirty fold more of val
liable crops than the same grounds would
under faIIorable circumstances, and that
such lands under favorable cultivation
and circumstances will continue to in
crease in value from year to year, instead
of wearing and wasting away by the
ordinary cheap and destructive poor cul'
ture.
W. claim that by the intensive sys
TEN We can correct and change this waste.
full and r%uinous drain upon the lands
and the pockets of the farmer and start
him On The cure road to success and pros
per'ty, that by this change increase will
take the place of decrease, that by the
adoption of the intensive system the
farmer will o find himself on the sure
road to prosperity.
In the earlier history of our country,
especially in the Southern States, it was
the custom to fell the timber from the
virgin forests, lightly scratch the soil,
after burning the debris on the grounds,
and when the soil has become exhausted
to repeat this same destructive operation
over and over again on the new forests,
to be again washed away to the creeks.
Since the wal we have had but little
left, gave these old worn out fields, which
the farmer has attempted to cultivate,
upon the same old plans with the aid of
commercial fertilizers, and the inevitable
has been hat both fertilizer and soil
have travelled together to the water cour.
ses, or that the fertilizers that remained
on the fields aided the droughts to burn
out the crops.
These old cheap and squandering plans
have to be abandoned, they have been
weighed in the balances and found want
ing, they have already wrought ruin aud
bankruptcy to the deluded farmer.
The true and really economical inten-
sive system of crop culture now looms
to the front as the great %panacea.to the
tiller of the soil, and will lead him from
absolute ruin to prosperity.
Mr.. David Dixon used to say that hs
could always tell in the spring OF the year
where the dry streaks were going to be