The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-18

Testimony in favor of subsoiling, espe-
pouring in from almost every quarter,
writes r. Waugh in American Agricultu-
rist. 1t should be clearly understood that
good subsoiling does not mean turning
down the surface soil and turning up the
subsoil on top of it. That would do
good deal of harm. The crude material
so brought up has not had enough air to
prepare it as plant food, and may be in
itself very deficient in some essential food
elements.
To subsoil for best results, as little as
possible of the surface soil should be
turned under. 1t should, however. be
clean-turned once and the layer below it
well stirred to a greater or less depth,
as is found practicable, and left so. The
main interest and chief benefit of this
sort of subsoling is TO open up the more
or less impervious stratum that lies be-
low the reach of ordinary blowing in such
a way that by the action of air and moist
ure and frosts it may be brought into a
condition that will enable it TO hold the
greatest quantity of moisture and at the
same time permit the free circulation of
air around the roots of the plant. In the
growth of trees, for example, the repeated
movement of the soil caused by the le-
Verage of the roots under the action OF
the wind may be see very much the same
effect as results from subsoiling There
is no transposition of the different lay
ers of the soil, only a loosening proper
toned to the amount of wind power that
is brought to bear on the branches and
leaves of the tree. The decaying vegeta-
BILE matter, a leading ingredient in the
food of the tree, always stays on the sur
face, and the small fibers of the roots
come up to feed upon it. But another set
of roots reaches down deeper and deeper,
mainly to bring up moisture, without
which as a diluting agent food cannot
readily be made available. The work
done by the leverage of the tree Is of very
much the same sort as is done by good
subsoiling. What the tree keeps doing, 1t
may be for centuries, subsoiling will do
by one process for the plants which must
produce their full growth and perfection
in a single season.
There is a wide range in the character
of soils and some soils are such a happy
combination of sand and loan as to be
readily pervious to both air and mois
ture. If there is excessive rainfall it is
slowly but surely drained off through the
lower layers, and in proracted drought
moisture comes back to the surface in the
same way. But this combination is not
common, and the leading advantages of
sub-soiling has been its power to protect
crops from the effects of extreme and
protracted droughts. It is the remarka-
BILE consensus of experience in this direc
ton that emphasizes the Importance of a
fuller attention to the effect of sub-soil-
ing and the best way of doing it than il
has ever before had.
The best season for sub-soiling is evil
IDENTIFY the fall; once stirred by the sub
soil plow the moisture and frost together
will reduce the soil so stirred to fine par
ticles, through which the air and mois.
ture and the roots to be benefited can
freely pass. Some plants have in their
roots much greater penetrating power
than others, but sub-soling will do al
one process and more effectually what Is
only partially and slowly done even by
the most penetrating kind of roots
The best way is to send round an Or
binary pillow and turn over an ordinary
furrow at the ordinary depth following
in the same furrow with a subsoil pillow
of some sort that will stir a few inches of
the next stratum of soil and leave it in
the same position. An ordinary plow with
out the moldboard will do this fairly
well.