MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 7 



with the method of plowing. If the land is to be manured 

 broadcast, and in great abundance, plowing can hardly be too 

 deep; but if in small quantities, and that in the hill, the depth 

 should be less, especially if the soil is in a poor condition, and 

 in sucli cases a gradual deepening may be practiced profitably. 



The third particular is almost entirely neglected. The ricli, 

 alluvial soil of our rivers, or the inexhaustible prairies of the 

 West, may yield their fruit in abundance without much labor; 

 but the hard, rock-bound soil of Oxford county, and similar 

 localities, requires more tilling than most of our farmers have 

 patience to bestow. 



The nature and composition should regulate the depth and 

 perhaps the time of plowing. A coarse, gravelly subsoil, operates 

 like a sieve, unable to hold the fertilizing properties ; they pass 

 away as easily as a person upon a bed of quick-sand; conse- 

 quently at the time of plowing something must be added to 

 hold the manure while the roots take in what it wants. A 

 hard, clayey under soil, is impervious to rain, manure, or finally 

 to anything, and must be thrown up in small quantities, that it 

 may undergo change, become intermingled with aliment, and 

 able to impart sustenance to vegetation. Difi"erent crops re- 

 quire different kinds of soil, — different kinds of manure require 

 to be sown at different periods of the season, and different 

 modes of treatment at each stage of its existence ; so it follows 

 they require the soil to be prepared in a different manner. 



An enumeration of the different processes would extend this 

 report to an improper length. Spring and fall plowing each 

 has its advocates and each probably its advantages ; but all 

 fall plowing would be injudicious and all spring plowing imprac- 

 ticable with many. But to return to the more immediate duties 

 assigned your committee by the Maine State Agricultural Soci- 

 ety. It is the conviction of your committee that a less degree 

 of interest was manifested at this exhibition in the most impor- 

 tant part of the performance, namely, that of plowing, than in 

 horse trotting and foot racing. This ought not so to be. If 

 plowing were neglected or left undone, horses would not be 

 able to trot so fast. An inversion seems to exist. The pro- 

 ducer is allowed a mea2:re pittance for exhibiting his streno-th.. 

 skill and usefulness, while the horseman receives the full value 



