278 Transactions of the 



The cost of all this thorough tillage (including the second plowing 

 and "ridging" or molding up hereinafter described) may be taken at 

 twelve dollars and fifty cents per acre. That is to say, a farmer could 

 contract to do it at that price, and would get a fair rate of hire for his 

 horses and tools, farm wages for the hands employed, and a reasonable 

 price for the feed consumed. He would not make more than this, and 

 if rains should interfere much with the work, compelling him to feed 

 idle stock, he would not count that he had <; made anj'thing." But, 

 taking one season with another, the above figure (twelve dollars and 

 fifty eents per acre) will be found a fair one at which to estimate the 

 total cost of preparing the land for the crop. This figure will appear 

 small enough when it is remembered that the California planter raises 

 bis crop in competition with Eastern growers, one part of whom can 

 plant their land to this crop only every third or fourth year, while an- 

 other part expends twenty times this sum on manures alone, and where 

 yield to the acre averages scarcely half the amount that the Californian 

 can count on. 



SECOND PLOWING. 



A second plowing in the Spring is needed — partly to again loosen the 

 soil which has settled and compacted under the Winter rains, and not 

 less for the purpose of bringing to the surface more of the original sur- 

 face soil that was turned deep under at the first plowing, at the same 

 time turning back a portion of the subsoil that was then brought to 

 the top, thus mixing the old and the new soils well throughout the 

 whole depth. For it is to be remembered that in most soils the super- 

 ficial portion only — for a depth varying from four to eight (more often 

 six) inches — is really rich in plant food. There may be exceptions to 

 this in pure alluvial bottoms, where the soil from any depth appears to 

 be about equally capable of nourishing plant life. While deep plowing 

 as described is necessary to insure the vigorous growth of the plant 

 throughout its life, it is equally needful that it should have abundant 

 food at each period of life; that is, that all the successive portions of 

 soil throughout which its roots are to penetrate, seeking sustenance, 

 shall he capable of yielding it freely. It may happen that by a single 

 plowing a rich surface soil has been turned under, and a poor subsoil 

 brought atop; in this, the 3 r oung plants might make a poor and stunted 

 growth, literally starving, while an abundance of generous food lay 

 underneath — just bej T ond the reach of the little roots. Nor will the 

 need for this second plowing be quite obviated by the next process of 

 ridging; for if it be omitted, the land will commonly in ridging mold 

 up more or less clodd t y. Again, it will be found that the expense of the 

 second plowing will be more than recompensed by the saving in the 

 mere money cost of ensuing operations, while it will be returned many 

 fold in the yield, and early outturn of the crop. Of course the har- 

 rowing will be as thorough and prompt after the second plowing as 

 after the first, and should the harrow not properly accomplish its work, 

 it should be followed by a clod masher. A roller is not effective for 

 this purpose. A clod masher may be well made by taking two side 

 pieces of three by eight stuff, ten feet long. Mortise in stoutly a front 

 and tail piece of the same,' eight feet long, set at an angle of sixty de- 

 grees with the ground, like the bow of a scow. Spike on between the 

 sides of this frame a series of two by eight pieces, parallel with the 

 two end pieces. The advantage of setting the cross pieces in this way 

 is, that it gives such clods as pass under the forward pieces without 



