388 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Spring- plowing of heavy cliiy cannot be deep, for the reason that 

 the raw soil would not be ready for the young plant, and for the fur- 

 ther reason that usually the excessive moisture forbids early plow- 

 ing of such soil. 



March plowing can often be safely and profitably done, even when 

 the ground is quite moist, and at considerable depth, for the same 

 reasons that prevail in w'inter plowing. And it may be added this is 

 the most favorable season for the destruction of the grub. 



It will be found valuable and usually practicable to plow a given 

 field alternately deep and shallow. This will receive frequent deep 

 stirring of the soil in order to bring up the leaching fertility, form 

 a deep reservoir for moisture, provide larger root pasturage, and 

 prevent the formation of floors by the action of the sole of the plow 

 and the tramping of the team. 



Subsequent operations, however important, can receive at this time 

 but brief mention. Harrowing, of course, is the chief operation after 

 the plow. Usually in spring work this should not be delayed longer 

 than is necessary to dry the plowed surface to a friable condition. 

 If left longer it will bake and the surface be filled with dried clods, 

 while the escape of moisture will be serious. Generally the latter 

 hours of the day on which the plowing is done should be given to 

 harrowing all that part of the day's plowing that is in condition to 

 be finely pulverized. This will break up the smoothed surface of the 

 furrow slice so as to prevent baking, while it covers the surface with 

 a mulch of fine earth that will check evaporation. 



There is another important place for the harrow before its final 

 operations. In case of a field like corn stubble that has been left 

 bare during the winter and awaits a condition sufficiently dry for 

 plowing, we find our worst clods. Before it has dried to sufficient 

 depth to admit the plow, the surface, if a clay soil, will be baked like 

 a pavement, and if plowed in that condition, the operation will not 

 only be tedious, but the clods will be well nigh unconquerable; and 

 what is worst of all, they will be plowed under, so that while we may 

 secure a surface that has the appearance of having been well pul- 

 verized, the under stratum where the roots of the plant will appear 

 will be clods and interstices in which the rootlets of the plant will 

 perish. Here then is the most important w^ork of the harrow. Just 

 as soon as the surface is simi)ly friable, neither mudd^^ nor hard, a 

 heavy spike-tooth harrow should be put upon it, knocking down the 

 stubble and pulverizing two or three inches of the surface. This dis- 

 poses of the stubble, prevents baking of the surface and the forma- 

 tion of clods, and instead of clods as the substratum, the finest soil 

 of the field goes under to form the bed for the plant rootlets. Thus, 

 too, the labor of plowing will be reduced one-half. 



If the plowing has been properly performed, the operation of 



