The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1899-05-23

"u0E66AS G40 5uUeO4lIuS OOSS 1OS tOk0
anything upp, but simply loosens the
clay below the reach of the breaking
plow. One who rashly turns the un
used subsoil all at or ce on top can
hardly expect good results at once, but
rather to the contrary. Any increased
depth of turning over the soil should
be gradual but there is no need for
any such caution in the use Of the sub
soiler. Put it in as deep as you can,
provided the soil is in such a condition
that subsoiling will be of any advan
tage, for there are plenty of soils in
which there would be positive disad
vantage even in subsoiling. A soggy,
crawfishy subsoil would only be made
worse by any attempt to run sub
soiler through it. Hence the first
requisi e before subsoiling is to be sure
that the drainage is all right, for if it
is not you had as well save the labor Of
subsoiIing, as no amount OF stirring
helps watersoaked subsoil. Then so
far as deep ploWing in the sense OF
turning over the soil is concerned,
there are many soils in which it is not
necessary, and may be harmful. There
are deep, sandy soils which are all the
better for having their lower part un.
disturbed, and there are clays that are
absolutely harmful if mixed with the
surface soil. But in the blood red sub
soils of the Southern Piedmont region
the plow cannot be driven too deep.
We have here as rule on our uplands
a thin and rather sandy soil at the sur
face, and right under this thin layer of
sand and broken rock there is the
greasiest of red clay, that will stand
year after year almost perpendicular
in a railroad cut. This thin sandy sur
face has been the part scratched for
generations. When the foods OF rain
come, this soil gets at once filed with
water, and as the hills are steep here
abouts, it soon starts for the river and
takes the soil along, and the hard clay
right below gives the water nice easy
passage eff, and directly there is what
the farmers call a "red gall" that is
broad stretch from which the whole Of
the sandy surface has been carried eff
bodily. Year after year the frosts Of
winter mellow the surface of the red
gall and the rains. wash it down to the
hard pan again, and the hill gets from
a red gall to deep gully. There are
thousands of acres of such quilted and
wholly useless land in the South, and
all started down hill by reason of a
mule and a little plow. With big
plow driven down into that clay drawn
by three good mules, and another pair
to a subsoiler following in the same
furrow, we could work these lands
without 80 much need for the big ter
races to stop the water. We would
have a soil of better texture on the
surface, for the present sandy sur
face would be all the better for the Rd
mixture of the clay. can never insist
too often on the fact that the red clay
subsoils of our Southern Atlantic up
lands are the best soil we have. But
there are plenty Of soils where it would
be folly to turn the clay up, There
are such lands all along our Southern
coast that are called white oak soils,
white, fat stiff soil underlaid with
Whitley blue clay, and generally need
ing underdrainags worse than aC5-
thing else. Such subsoils are apt to
contain matters absolutely poisonous
to plant life. Hence we must study
the nature of our soil. II it can be
helped by deep blowing then plow
deep. If subsoiling is what it needs,
and the majority of our uplands do
need it, then do not mix up eubsoiling
with deep plowing, for you can grow
better crops on lightly turned land that
has been deeply subsoiled than you
can of deeply turned land not sub
sOiIed