420 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



water would absorb the ammonia and thus be im- 

 proved as hfjuid manure. 



For the indication as to the best season for ap- 

 plying manure, Mr. P. cites Dame Nature, who 

 makes her applications in the autumn, and thus 

 keeps up a constant fertility — whereas, the fields 

 that come under man's culture generally grow 

 poorer, the longer he has the charge of them. 



After some remarks upon vegetable physiology, 

 he reiterates : " For spring crops I should apply 

 manure, whether fermented or not, upon the sur- 

 face of the ploughed ground, about the 1st of 

 November, or before the setting in of the fall rains; 

 and in the spring, plough the residuum under, and 



mix thoroughly with the harrow." For fall crops, 

 he would make the application before the final 

 ploughing, and thoroughly mix with the harrow, 

 and then cover the seed with the drill or harrow, 

 never with the plough. Evaporation never hurts 

 manures or composts thus applied, the watery 

 particles only escape. Thoroughly prepared com- 

 posts may be applied at any time, when the earth 

 is in a condition to receive it ; but he prefers to 

 manure his trees, shrubs, and plants in the autumn, 

 when he thinks that the earth is preparing to 

 digest the food to be used by the crops the next 

 season, though they may be active to a certain ex- 

 tent even now. 



FARMING WITHOUT THE PLOUGH. 



When Mr. Smith of Woolston first propounded his 

 system of culture, practical people admired the con- 

 struction and performauces of his powerful grubber and 

 effective subsoiler, but shook their heads doubtingly at 

 his repudiation of the turn-over plough. However, his 

 successful husbandry during a course of ye.nrs, witnessed 

 by thousands of inteUigent farmers from all parts of the 

 kingdom, and the equally striking examples of tillage 

 by the steam scarifier now to be found in almost every 

 county in England, have done more towards condemning 

 our long-venerated implement, the dear old plough, than 

 all the treatises and " Talpa" teachings which have 

 striven to convince the stubborn agricultural world. 

 Thanks to the cheap and efficient grubbers, scufflers, 

 drags, et hoc gemis omne, now so prevalent, everybody 

 is finding out that while the share, coulter, and mould- 

 board of a plough form a capital mechanical apparatus 

 for cutting the soil into sections and uplifting the lower 

 soil into daylight by burying the upper surface, the same 

 knife-edges and screw-wedge make by no means the best 

 tools for tiUing, pulverizing, and cleaning the sections or 

 furrow-slices when so upturned. But beyond this, the 

 Woolston system and steam-culture generally are show- 

 ing us that this inversion by the plough, or indeed by 

 any other means, is necessary far less often in the course 

 of a rotation of cropping than has been commonly sup- 

 posed. We can get a good seed-bed for some crops 

 without ploughing at all ; and the tine of the cultivator 

 forms the most effective tiUing instrument, and is 

 worked with the least expenditure of mechanical power 

 in proportion to the fineness of division obtained in the 

 soil. But we are not to banish the plough altogether. 

 Loudly as Mr. Smith may denounce " the turnover 

 plough," it is still the mainstay of all his husbandry ; 

 for the ridges on which his root and bean crops are 

 grown are thrown up by a plough ; the exposure of the 

 subsoil in the bottom of his deep trenches is obtained 

 by means of a plough ; and with his stirring and 

 smashing-up implement only, and without the plough, he 

 could not get the deep pulverulent seedbed that he now 

 obtains. The ordinary plough is used at Woolston only 

 for turning over clover leys — which, done with a skim- 

 coultered first-class wheel plough, is, for the prepara- 

 tion of this particular crop for wheat, a superior process 

 to any that Mr. Smith can devise.. But for trenching- 

 up the ridges, it is, of course, a double-mouldboard 

 plough that is used ; and, call it by what name you 

 please, as it has both share and mouldboard, with which 

 it turns over the soil, turned both sides, it is a plough 

 all the same. On some lands and for various crops, 

 there may be no method of deep trenching or bringing 

 up the subsoil so effectual as this one of casting into 



yard-wide angular ridges ; but other soils will be better 

 trenched by the Cotgreave plough, cutting two furrows 

 deep, and packing one slice upon the other. And 

 digging-machines may perhaps yet surpass either de- 

 scription of implement in value. 



Leaving this subject, we propose to inquire into some 

 early instances of a " subsdtute for the plough," in the 

 preparation of ground for a seed-bed, and, in the course 

 of our papers, hope to meet with some little enlighten- 

 ment and a few novel views on the subject of cultiva- 

 tion. 



In the year 1784 Arthur Young made one of his 

 famous " Tours," to refresh his recollection respecting 

 " the bean-husbandry of Kent," and to view the agri- 

 culture of Foulness Island, which was at that time ex- 

 citing some attention, from its abolition of fallow, and 

 its dependence upon the bean crop. In this island of 

 rich salt-marsh, he says, "when the bean-stubbles are 

 foul, they are hand-hoed, in order for drawing the 

 weeds together with a drag-rake before they plough, 

 which they do once or three or four times, according to 

 circumstances. I cannot but remark upon this singular 

 practice, that it is the greatest panegyric in the world 

 upon the cultivation of t' '\ Isle of Thanet, where they 

 have found the necessity of the practice so great as to 

 occasion the invention of a machine purposely to do 

 this work. It is a great skim, which cuts the surface in 

 such a manner that the weeds are easily collected by 

 harrowing, which is a cheaper and much more effectual 

 method than by the hand-hoeing work of the Isle of 

 Foulness. Both islands have, from a very extensive 

 experience, found the necessity of cleaning their bean 

 and pea-stubbles before they plough. When a crop is 

 going to be put in, nothing can be worse than to plough 

 in weeds. All root-iveeds are by that means rather 

 planted than destroyed ; and others choke the plough, 

 occasion a bad tilth, and very unsightly work. To 

 clear, therefore, the field entirely, before the ploughs go 

 into it, is a most admirable system of management. I 

 have used one of these large skims many years upon my 

 own farm, and know not any tool more truly useful and 

 effective." 



Near Feversham he found the beans put in with a 

 drill-plough, in rows 20 inches apart; "They keep 

 them in a garden degree of cleanness by horse and hand- 

 hoeing, the latter generally twice or thrice, and two, 

 three, or four horse-hoeings. They use a skim, which 

 they call a horse-break, for cutting the weeds, and 

 loosing the surface of the intervals ; earth them up 

 twice, first with a moveable iron fixed to the break, and 

 afterwards with a double mouldboard plough, made on 

 purpose, with a very long, round share, finishing in a 



