Fall Plowing

In Canada, plowing in the fall of the year ig a matter of no sraall importance to the farmer, and he who can acoom plish a large aoreage finds himself fore handed in our short spring months. A the same time there is among inany men an impreasion that quantity is the grea desiderátum to be looked to in this ope ration, and they are apt to negltjct qual ity. It is said that Great Britain woulc doublé her erop were the system of doep oultivation to become universal, anc with inuoh greatsr force may the game opinión be applied to Canada, when our land has been utterly run out upon the surface, and where, a few inches under nearly every farm, lies a hard pan oompacted by the passage of the plow year after year. Shallow plowing is, we con8Íder, one of the ohief causes of tha' deterioration of crops which takes place so rapidly after the virgin soil has once become partially exhausted. Of course, in the discussion of such a wide question as that of deep plowing consideration must always be had to the various combinations and states in which different soils exist. There are exceptional oases - or, we should say, there is an exceptional case, in which deep plowing would actually be prejudicial, anc that is where a shallow top soil is underlaid with gravel or sand, highly impreg nated with an oxida of iron. Suoh i aoil is, however, of rare occurrence, anc where it exists we should advise the farmer to work it as little as possible But even upon such a soil the use of a purely subsoil plow would be very beueficial. The presence of oxygen and oarbonaoeous gasses in the soil is absolutely neoessary to the growth of all plants, anc these can only be made available by thoroughly aerating or impregnating the pores ot the earth with atmospherio air (iood agriculture oonsists not only in re newing, but also in prolonging tho fertile properties of the soil. Of course al deepening of the soil must be done gradually and with judgment. There are men who, having heard something of the benefits of deep plowing, have rushed in to it without due consideration - have turned up a subsoil, and npoii it have sown a erop which has proven a failure They have then condemned the principie yet the principie was good - the fauli was in the application of it, Presuming that all soil is disintegrated rook, and that these rooks contain in a greater or less proportion the salts necessury to the growth of plants, the roots o: living plants, by the power which they obtain from their very princple of life are enabled to extract and imbibe whatever of these salts are attached to or coutained in the partióles of soil. The plow then carries this disintegration still furtber, and exposes new surfaces or nuw sources of food to the roots of the growing plant. Nw, thia subsoil con tmns no inould or decaying vegetable mattpr, and thus is usually termed sour or, in other words, contains much that is absolutely detrimental to the vigor o) plant life. It therefore requires to be aerated to be relieved of its uoxious gases and there is no season so propitious and no action so effectual tor thia puapose as that of frost and snow Prost breaks up and crumbles the partióles of aoil, opening them to the action of the atmosphere, while the snow carries to them nitrogenou? matter in large uantities. The farmer, then, who feels convinced that a deeper plowing would be of benefit to his land, must be gradual in his application; should j low say an inch deeper every time ; giving the subsoil - oold and unavailable to the plant, but rioh in vegetable food - time to mke those chemical combinations with the oxygen and carbouaceous gases of the air which shall enable it to give forth its plant food to the tender rootlets seeking sustenance. Another advantageous time to plow deep is just before an application of manure. What is the secret of that yellow tint upon the barley blade when put into the ground too early in the spring? The farmer will teil you that the soil was too oold, and he is right. But what made it too oold? Siinply the presenoe of stagnant water. Water percolating the soil is benefioial ; but the instant that water gathers in a spot, it becomes injurious. The farmer knows the ill effcts of stagnant water upon the surface of the land, because he can see it ; and yet it is hard to makt! him recognize the fact that there is an immense pool of water lying dead over inany acres of bis land, just out of sight, a few inches below the surface. Thorough under-draining is the effectual cure for this evil, and next to that comes deep plowing. There are fields that have been plowed the same depth for perhaps forty years ; the farmer does not try to force his plow below.and in consequence, with the pressure of the plow and the trampling of horse and man there is a hard pan through whioh no water can possibly sink away, nor can any root obtain a hold upon it. Break that up, an inch at a time, and you will relieve your land of stagnant water, prolong the fertility of the soil, get upon the land a fortnight earlier in the spring, and plow it later in the fall ; your wheat will not heave out, because there will be no stagnant water about the roots upon which the frost can act; your cedar posts will stop in the gronnd for thirty years, instead of being thrown out inch by inch per annum. - Canada Farmer. íbePicMganltfgits