The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-11-10
Subsolling Explained.

Testimony in favor of subsoiling,
especially as an antidote to drought,
keeps pouring in from almost every
quarter. It should be clearly under
stood that good subsoiling does not
mean turning down the surface soil
and turning up the subsoil on top
Of it. That would do a 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. It should, however,
be clean turned once and the layer be-
low it we'll stirred to greater or less
depth, as is found practicable, and
left 80. The main interest and chief
benefit of this sort of subsoiling is to
open up the more or less impervious
stratum that lies below the reach of
ordinary powing in such way that
by the action of air and moisture and
frosts it may be brought into condi-
ton that will enable it to hold the
greatest quantity Of moisture and at
the same time permit the free. circula-
ton of air around the roots of the
plant. In the growth of trees, for ex-
ample, the repeated movement of the
soil caused by the leverage of the roots
under the action Of the wind may be
seen very much the same effect as re-
suits from subsoiling. There is no
transposition of the different layers of
the soil, only loosening proportioned
to the amount of wind power that is
brought to bear on the branches and
leaves of the tree. The decaying
vegetable matter, a leading ingredient
in the food of the tree, always stays on
the surface and the small fbers 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 SUBJ
soiling. What the tree keeps doing,
it may be for centuries, subsoiling will
do by one process for the plants which
must produce their full growth and
perfection in single season.
There is a wide range in the char
acter of soils and some soils are such
q happy combination of sand and loan
as to be readily pervious to both air
and moisture. If there is excessive
rainfall, it is slowly but surely drained
off through the lower layers, and in
protracted drought moisture comes
back to the surface in the same way.
But this combination is not common,
and the leading advantage of subsoil-
ing has been its power to protect crops
from the effects of extreme and pro-
tracted droughts. It is the remarkable
consensus of experience in this direc-
tion that emphasizes the Importance
of a fuller attention to the effect of
subsoiling and the best way of doing
it than it has ever before had.
The best season for subsoiling is
evidently the fall; once stirred by the
subsoil plow themoisture and frost
together will reduce the soil so stirred
to fine particles, through which the
air and moisture and the roots to be
benefited can freely pass. Some
plants have in their roots much greater
penetrating power than others, but
subsoiling will do at 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
dinary plow and turn over an ordinary
furrow at the ordinary depth, follow
ing in the same furrow with sub>oil
plow of some sort that will stir few
inches of the next stratum of soil and
leave it in the same position. An or
dinary plow without the moldboard
will do this fairly well.-New England
Homestead.