Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural LiteratureWalden, J. H.
Science
Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural Literature
Walden, J. H.
Agriculture -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
How shall we plow? All land should be subsoiled, except that having a
light, porous subsoil; one deep plowing on such land is sufficient.
Subsoiling is done by using two teams at once--one with a common plow,
running deep, and the other with a subsoil-plow with no mould-board, and
which will, consequently, stir and disintegrate the earth to the depth
at which it runs, without throwing it to the surface. The next
surface-furrow will cover up this loosened subsoil. In this way, land
may be plowed eighteen inches deep, to the great benefit of any crop
grown on it. If the surface be well manured, this method of plowing will
place the manure between the first furrow and the subsoil, and increase
its value. Such plowing is very valuable on land for young fruit-trees.
There is another method, which we denominate double-plowing, which is
more beneficial than ordinary subsoiling: it is performed by two common
plows, one following in the furrow of the other; the first furrow need
not be very deep--let the furrow in the bottom of the first be as deep
as possible, and thrown out upon the surface; the next furrow will throw
the surface and manure into the bottom of the deep furrow; the next
furrow will cover this surface-soil and manure very deep, and, as manure
always works up, it will impregnate the whole. This, for
garden-vegetables, berries, nurseries, or young orchards, is the best
form of plowing that we have ever tried. It may be done with one team,
by simply changing the gauge of the clevis every time round, gauging it
light for the first furrow, and deep for the second. We once prepared a
plat in this way with one team, on which cabbages made a remarkable
growth, even in a dry season. Still a farther improvement would be a
light coat of fine manure on the surface. All furrows, in every
description of plowing, should be near enough together to move the
whole, leaving no hard places between them. The usual "cut and cover"
system, to get over a large area in a day, is miserable economy. The
more evenly and flatly land can be turned over in plowing, the better it
will be; it retards the growth of weeds, and secures a better action
upon substances plowed under. An exception to deep plowing is in
breaking up the original prairies of the West: they have to be broken
with plows kept sharp as a knife, and not more than two inches deep. The
grass then dies and the sod rots. But plowed deep, the grass comes up
through the turf, and will prove troublesome for two or three years. It
must also be broken at a certain season of the year, to insure success.
It may be profitably done for two months after the grass gets a good
start in the spring.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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