There can be no question about the benefit of breaking up this tight stratum, provided you use a long-tooth harrow or a subsoil packer afterward to reduce the land so that it will not be too open to loss of moisture by too free circulation of air.  The best way to treat such a soil would be to use a tractor and plow to a full foot of depth, for this, followed by good harrowing, would disintegrate the hard stuff and commingle it with the loose surface soil and make it somewhat more retentive — doing this when the moisture is just right for disintegration and mixing.  If you are not ready to go to this expense, a subsoiler, following the plow with another team, would put your land in better shape for dry farming or for irrigation than it is now.  Starting late, however, might give you less crop the first year on such deep working than by shallow plowing if the year’s rainfall should be scant.  It would, however, be a good start for summer-fallowing and a big crop the next year.

Sour Soil.

What is “sour” soil?  Is that the name by which it is commonly known, and what is the treatment for it?

Sour soil is soil in which an acid is developed by plant decay and exclusion of air.  The proper treatment is the application of lime, and aeration by open tillage and underdrainage.

Old Plaster for Sour Land.

Can house plaster be used in reclaiming sour ground and how much per acre?  The ground produces some sour grass — not a great deal.  The plaster is from an old building that is being torn down.

House plaster is desirable as an application to land which is sour.  It also adds to the mellowness of land which is hard, because of the sand contained in it.  It has always been considered a good dressing for garden land.  So far as the correction of sourness goes, it is much less active than fresh lime, but it acts in the same way to a limited extent.  It is certainly worth using, providing it does not cost too much for delivery, and can be freely used if the land is heavy and needs friability.

Application of Manure Ashes.

Having recently got a lot of manure plentifully supplied with redwood shavings that had been used with the bedding, and being afraid to use the same in that shape, as it takes such a long time for the wood to rot, I reduced the pile to a heap of ashes.  How can it be best applied to ornamental trees and shrubbery in a light gravelly soil?

You have done unwisely in burning the manure.  We would have taken the risk of a single use of shavings for the sake of the manurial matter associated with them, and this risk of too much lightening of a gravelly soil would be especially small in connection with deep rooting plants like ornamental trees and shrubbery.  You have left merely the skeleton of the manure, and much of that of doubtful solubility, if the temperature ran very high by burning in a mass.  You need not be fearful about using these ashes.  Scatter or spread them over the ground just as you would have spread the manure, let the rains dissolve and carry down what they can and go on with your usual methods of cultivation.