58 AGRICULTURE OF MAIN^:. 



decompose it, otherwise you may make a silo of your land and 

 the material remains '^pickled" there for years. There is 

 another danger also, as there is in plowing under any turf — that 

 you break the subsoil connection so that the capillary water 

 cannot rise into the soil at all, or at least not freely. This is why 

 I always advise using the cutaway harrow on turf before plowing. 

 It is probably the most frequent and damaging error the plowing 

 farmer perpetrates upon his long-suffering land. 



A liberal supply of hard wood ashes, carrying with it, as it 

 does, thirty or forty per cent of wood lime, wnll sweeten land. 

 It is safe to say that often two-thirds of the benefits, which farm- 

 ers ascribe to the potash the ashes contain, should be credited to 

 the lime. 



Now, to recapitulate, choose any kind of land, first clear it of 

 obstructions, second, see that your drainage is all right, third see 

 that it contains sufficient humus, fourth, attend to the comfort of 

 the plant, which includes all the details of pulverization, aeration, 

 sweetening, conservation of moisture, warmth and nitrification ; 

 and finally, till. Clark says, land should be stirred from twenty 

 to forty times before any crop is attempted. If you will accept 

 these suggestions in the light in which they are intended, as 

 merely to stir you up to reflect and experiment for yourself, I 

 feel certain that some of you w^ill in the course of a few years 

 change your entire system of cropping and tillage to the great 

 benefit of your soil, and to your personal profit and joy. 



