Year: 1863




Deep Plowing-when AdviaabIs.


We have so frequently taken oc-


casion to urge upon our farmers and


planters the advantages to be de-


rived from deep plowing, that any


further remarks upon that particu-


lar head may probably be deemed


supererogatory. Some explanations


may, however, be necessary for the
purpose of indicating the limitations
to practice otherwise Of the ut
most value. It must ever be borne
IN mind that subsoils vary consider
ably in texture and quality; that


whilst in certain of them it would
be in the highest degrees beneficial
to send the plow down into them
and to incorporate them with the
surface soil, there are particular ca
ses in which this would be injurious.
1t is against the turning up of these
deleterious subsoils that we would
guard our readers. For instance,
there are some soils of a stiff blue
clay, unctuous when wet, and dry
ing in compact clods. Such subsoils
are sometimes found on the uplands,
but are chiefly confined to marshy
land and to wet alluvials. Where
these prevail they. should be well
drained, but should not be disturbed


by the plow. The same may be
said of stiff, yellow clays underlying
thin sands and loans, and impreg-
mated with iron. In all other instan-
ces where the subsoil, though of a
lighter color than surface soils-as
it always is until exposed to the air
--isyet of a similar quality, stirring
its pulverization with the subsoil
plow without changing it's bed, or
gradually deepening it in ordinary
plowing, will be of the utmost bene-
fit, by it to store up a larger supply
of moisture against periods of
drought, and also by rendering lar
ger quantities of soluble food acces-
ible to the growing plants. Stiff
clay soils can always be deeply
plowed to advantage, and the more
completely such soils are reduced to
a fine condition of tilth, the more
productive they will become. AL
luvial soils, except those already
mentioned as having a blue clay
underlying them, which have been
exhausted by shallow blowing and
successive crops, can be restored to
their prestine fertility in many in
stances, simply by running the plow
twice as deep as it has been custom
ary to do heretofore. Every spe-
cies of loamy soils formed of disin-
tegrated rock are rendered far more
productive by deep plowing. But
sandy soils, unless resting upon a
clay subsoil of good quality, are not
benefited by deep plowing; neither
should deep plowing be attempted
on thin loans resting on subsoil of
gravel or sand. With these reser-
vations, the deeper the plowing is
executed, or the more faithfully the
the subsoil plow does its work, the
greater will be the advantage to
permanent fertility of the. land.
We may here remark, also, that the
pillow is rarely made to accomplish
all that it is capable of performing
in the production of a crop. The
work is too often done In a slovenly
manner. Baulks are left; the condi-
tion of the soil at the time of plow-
ing is not sufficiently considered;
and the burrows are rarely turned
as they should be. We are we'll a.
ware that the plow is not a perfect
but it is the best for the
purpose that yet has been devised
and all other inventions intended to
its use in general culture
have failed. The fault, too, is not
so much in the pillow as in the re-
stricted use that is made of it. Ev-
erybody knows that hand labor
with the spade viii produce on the
same field crops largely exceeding
those which are gathered when the
land is broken up by the plow.--
reason of this is obvious enough.
In spade husbandry the land is not
only broken up deeply, but every
particle of the soil is well lpulverized
to the depth to which the spade
penetrates. Now the nearer the
tillage of fields under the plow can
be brought to that produced by the
spade, the nearer we approach the
of husbandTy. How is
this to be done ? Not by one plow-
ing alone but by successive plowings
athwart and across, following each
blowing with a heavy harrow, we
as nearly to complete
pulverization of the soil as it is posi-
bic to do with the implements at
The next question is
and we admit that it is a pertinent
one-will it pay to put this extra la
Dor on the 6eld2 We are satisfied
that in a great majority of instances
that it win. Land so plowed and
prepared would required much less
manure than it would need under
circumstances. IL would
much nearer to garden
culture, its product would conse-
quently be greater, whilst the addi-
tional cost of the hand and team
would not be much more than three
dollars an acre, an expense that


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