What is a general rule with regard to this?
Should deep plowing be immediately adopted? Why?
Why is this course of treatment advisable for garden culture?
The kind of plow used in cultivating the surface-soil must be decided by the kind of soil. This question the practical, observing farmer will be able to solve.
As a general rule, it may be stated that the plow which runs the deepest, with the same amount of force, is the best.
We might enter more fully into this matter but for want of space.
The advantages of deep plowing cannot be too strongly urged.
The statement that the deeper and the finer the soil is rendered, the more productive it will become, is in every respect true, and which no single instance will contradict.
It must not be inferred from this, that we would advise a farmer, who has always plowed his soil to the depth of only six inches, to double the depth at once. Such a practice in some soils would be highly injurious, as it would completely bury the more fertile and better cultivated soil, and bring to the top one which contains no organic matter, and has never been subject to atmospheric influences. This would, perhaps, be so little fitted for vegetation that it would scarcely sustain plants until their roots could reach the more fertile parts below. Such treatment of the soil (turning it upside down) is excellent in garden culture, where the great amount of manures applied is sufficient to overcome the temporary barrenness of the soil, but it is not to be recommended for all field cultivation, where much less manure is employed.
How should field plowing be conducted?