Show benefits of autumn plowing the ibe ib the e tillage and drainage draina ge of the acil are very closely related to each other so indeed as we said last week are the tillage and ma soil and these thesa not as cause and effect are related through drainage does enable tillage and tillage does al er composition but as being operations of the same class and kind and thus mr bailey denton though engaged in a lecture upon land drainage last bloh blon monday bionday day could not help referring to the steam plo pio plow as the great t tillage 11 I 1 amplem nt of the future and we had fr from h tn in too the striking fact bearing on the composition of a fertile soil that in a state of perfect one quarter barter of its bulk is air dir mr smith of lois weedon says that in all clay soils bolls containing ning the mineral elements of grain perfect dispenses with the need of and thee cannot be a doubt that a deepan deep and T thoro thorough u h tillage enables soleto soil to draw immensely on the it t e stores of vegetable food contained in air and rain bless rs hardy again says that perfect dispenses with the need of drainage and there can be but little doubt that deep and th thorough 0 rough tillage facilities the ope operation ration of whatever drainage may exist whether it be natural or artificial arti fical in both these cases the useful lesson is well taught that it is true economy rather to put the cheap and copious storehouse of Nat natures agencies to its fullest use than by laborious and costly artificial means to imitate expensively their operation such a lesson applies indeed beyond the advantages of tillage to the methods by thich aich tillage is to be obtained among the ea earliest bliest suggestions of cultivation by steam power was that of reducing by its means the soil to at once the land was to be torn down as the deal Is torn down at the sawmill saw mill though before the machine it may have been as hard bard and firm as wood behind the tool as it advanced at work etwas it was to lie ile as light and fine as aa sawdust bat it has at length been found that it is better because cheaper and more perfect berfect too to leave this last refinement of th the ep til tillage lage process to the weather which does it without cost the tte land is now torn smashed up or mot mol ed and thrown about by plow or grabber in great clods and lumps this is best done in dry autumn weather and thus it lies till spring certainly no climate is better adapted for cheap tillage than the english the rains and frosts of winter following a dry september and october must penetrate and thrust asunder the clung and hardened masses of the soil no two particles shall remain remain adhering to each other if you only give rcola and opportunity to the cheapest and most perfect natural disintegrator in the world no rasp or saw raw or mill will reduce the indu rated land iani to soft and wholesome so perfectly as a winter winters s frost and all that you need to attain its perfect operation is first to provide an outlet for the water when it comes by an efficient drainage of the subsoil and then to move the land while dry and break it up into clods and fragments no matter how large they be and leave eave them for alternate rain and drouth and frost and thaw to do their utmost london london agricultural gazette |