DEEP PLOUGHING.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 3 (Supplement)

DEEP PLOUGHING.

The depth of ploughing—and here our remarks are to be understood as having reference to breaking up as well as to spring ploughing for grain' or hoed crops—is a matter which rests with the farmer, and one which should be governed by circumstances and vary with the character of the soil and the crop to be grown upon the land. At tough witch grass sod, taken up to be manured and after a few years laid down again, should be ploughed sufficiently deep to thoroughly cover the fertilisers applied to the land, without disturbing the' inverted sod; Where; ploughing is done in the spring to cover a light coat of manure spread on the surface, and the only object being to cover the manure, it should be .ploughed as shallow as may be consistent with good work —say not over four inches. In ordinary field practicejon average soils seven inches may be regarded as about a fair depth j but in old fields, the top of whose subsoils has been rendered firm and solid by the ploughings and trampings of 50 or 100 years into a crust as hard as stone, the plough should be put down to such a depth as will allow it to crush this and destroy the impervious barriers, thus separating the lower from the upper soil. But tlra cold subsoil must not be turned .up in too great a quantity to be mingled with the upper soil at onei ploughing. It must be done gradually, being loosened before it is fully incorporated with the surface soil or injurious results will, follow. The old idea of .deep ploughing for all crops and conditions of soil, and of the year has long ago been discarded, as is justly deserved to be. Deep ploughing under proper conditions is good practice, but done without judgment is a decided injury. Some years agp it was asserted on good authority that the average depth of ploughing in the State of N;w York was only four and a half inches It surely , is not much more now, and wo doubt if it is any more than that throughout New England generally. And yet what a loss in ploughing only four and a half inches deep! Untold treasures of,fertility lie in aU soils below this depth, and it is only necessary to make them

available to the action of the elements bydeeper ploughing and,loosening of the soil fto' add to the present amount of plant food in very large amount —American Cultivator.