The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-03-22
AURSOILING AND TERACES.
Progressive Farmer.)

1851 SEN
II has been assumed by many OF
our readers tina / ave advocated
deep sub-soiling under all conditions
IF soils. while l have uniformly tried
to show tina in my own experience,
and. that of others ] have had oppor-
tunity to observe, there Is seldom any
advantage i'll Subsoiling on level lands
that need drainage more than any
thing else. and that on light sandy
soils it may be q positive d~lsadSant-
age.
Where lands are light and sandy 1t
is generally an advantage to set some
thing of Il firrner nature. a sort OF
hard-pan. below reasonably deep
blowing. to check the tendency OF
such soils to be leachy; and on lands
where the sandy soil is too deep for
the ordinary pillow to touch clay, very
deep blowing nay be q disadvantage.
IN the level clay soils, subSoilinS Will do
little good, for the lOOSened SubSOll
will at once settle back as firm as
ever, and the benefit that might at
times show will hardly pay for the
extra expense.
But there arc lands all over the
South where deep subsoiling Will be
IF immense benefit. These are the
hily lands Of the Piedmont section.
on these lands ! know, from practi-
cal work on them, that a deep sub
SOiling is one of the very best means
for checking the washing and gully
ing of the soil. ] know, from having
worked as steep red hills as are in
cultivation anywhere. that if the land
is plowed eight inches regularly and
subSoiled six to eight inches deeper.
and a sod is always turned when the
Ian is broken for a hoed crop, there
will be no need for terracing, if the
crop is cultivated level and shallow
~ no T,r-nu-C - n a ~ &ho hills
to catch q head OF water. 1t is the
shallow breaking and the C. Of veg
etable fiber to hold the soil together
that have made the gulIies i'll the red
hills OF the South. | know that the
sod and the deep blowing and sub
SOillng Will check washing better than
AL the terraces ever made. for l have
practiced it with success.
or hills that have for generations
been scratched over and the humus
completely Worn out of it will not do
20 abandon the t~crr2ceS all at once.
We must restore the humus by adding
vegetable matter to the soil, and get Il
500 to turn the hills are
broken, and then keep them but q
season III clean culture and back to
the conditions that will make more
vegetable matter before another clean
hCed crop is planted. But, given the
soil conditions that will resist wash
ing, and then add the deep breaking
and Subsoiling, and you will need no
~terracing whatever. Farmers in the
mills OF Georgia who have AXE my
advice il this matter have found that
i an right.
Another great advantage in deep
snhsoiling Of the red hills is the reten-
ton OF the water in the land and the
prevention OF damage from drouth.
A Northern man writing recently in
reply to q Southern hill farmer on
The red clay, told him that probably
the land needs drainage, for they
found that on INLAND clay in the
North under-drains are important.
f5ut the compact. underground clay
OF the North is a very different thing
rom the coarser texture of the red
tdnOs of the South tina have never
been ground by glaciers, and the re-
tentlOn OF the water is OF far more
Importance on these hills than under
drainage. | believe there are terraced
lands in the South on hills covered
with broken rock, where it would be
81 great advantage to dig deep bitches
on the upper side of the terraces and
III these bury the rocks from the sur
face below h reach Of the plow, not
tor drainage but for the holding of
the water TO soak slowly into the soil
But on all of our level lands do
southern stations have shown. that it
does not pay to subsoil, while il does
pay to turn fairly deep.