iS BOABD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



tion of the ground, we can so far control their results, that our crops 

 may receive the benefits they were intended to bestow. So, instead 

 of adopting and recommending the method of surface dressing, 

 as many do, in my opinion, an opinion, as before stated, founded 

 upon many experiments carried on under variable conditions, as 

 well as upon conclusions from reasoning, plowing in connection with 

 manuring is better by far. 



The soil of itself naturally settles together without auy agency. 

 But there are many other effective agents at work more or less of 

 the time in all of our cultivated fields, which operate to make the 

 soil more compact. In removing one single crop of hay, the mow- 

 ing, raking and carting off necessitates a great deal of teaming 

 over the field ; and so does the harvesting of other crops. 



Furthermore, farmers have not yet generally abandoned the prac- 

 tice of turning their whole stock of cattle into the tilled fields in 

 autumn. The injury sustained by these fields from the tramping of 

 cattle, especiall}' over the lower portions, does not seem to be at all 

 considered. Again, there is manure to haul, rocks to remove, plots 

 to cultivate, which cannot be reached without going over the mowing 

 fields ; and then there are various other matters that necessitate a 

 great deal of teaming to and fro over the land in grass ; so that in 

 a few years, there is scarcely an inch of land in the whole field which 

 has not felt the pressure of the wheel and the tread of horses and 

 cattle, and some of it many times. What would you naturally 

 expect would result from all these causes ? Just exactly what does 

 result, the soil would become more compact. 



No farmer has failed to notice that a temporary rc^d across his 

 field always produces less grass than the adjacent portions. Why? 

 The reason is obvious ; the soil has become so solid that the il*:tle 

 roots work their way through it very slowly and find but little nour- 

 ishment ; not because the nutriment is not there, not because the 

 soil is not furnishing all the nourishment in its power, but simply 

 and only because the plant food has become so imprisoned and 

 cramped in the hard soil, that it is quite impossible to exercise their 

 proper functions. 



Nobod}', except an absolute simpleton, would think of sowing grain 

 or planting corn on the highway. Why? Not because the soil is 

 not rich enough ; not because it does not contain as much fertilizing 

 material as the field a few rods away ; not because the timel}' rains 

 and showers do not come down upon it as they do upon the cultivated 



