The Elements of Agriculture / A Book for Young Farmers, with Questions Prepared for the Use of Schools

by George E. Waring

It must be evident that roots, penetrating the soil to a depth of two feet, anchor the plant with greater stability than those which are spread more thinly near the surface.

The roots of plants traversing the soil to such great distances, and being located in nearly every part, absorb mineral and other food, in solution in water, only through the spongioles at their ends. Consequently, by having these ends in every part of the soil, it is all brought under contribution, and the amount supplied is greater, while the demand on any particular part may be less than when the whole requirements of plants have to be supplied from a depth of a few inches.

May garden soils be profitably imitated in field culture?

The ability of roots, to assume a natural shape in the soil, and grow to their largest sizes, must depend on the condition of the soil. If it is finely pulverized to the whole depth to which they ought to go, they will be fully developed; while, if the soil be too hard for penetration, they will be deformed or small. Thus a carrot may grow to the length of two and a half feet, and be of perfect shape, while, if it meet in its course at a depth of eight or ten inches a cold, hard subsoil, its growth must be arrested, or its form injured.

Roots are turned aside by a hard sub-soil, as they would be if received by the surface of a plate of glass.

Add to this the fact that cold, impenetrable subsoils are chemically uncongenial to vegetation, and we have sufficient evidence of the importance, and in many cases the absolute necessity of sub-soiling and under-draining.

It is unnecessary to urge the fact that a garden soil of two feet is more productive than a field soil of six inches; and it is certain that proper attention to these two modes of cultivation will in a majority of cases make a garden of the field—more than doubling its value in ease of working, increased produce, certain security against drought, and more even distribution of the demands on the soil—while the outlay will be immediately repaid by an increase of crops.

Is the use of the sub-soil plow increasing?

Will its use ever injure crops?

The subsoil will be much improved in its character the first year, and a continual advancement renders it in time equal to the original surface-soil, and extending to a depth of two feet or more.