16 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ON WINTER PLOUGHING 



Much has been said, and still more written, in the few 

 past years, about deep cultivation ; and ever since the 

 advent of steam-culture, it has been a favourite 

 topic amongst modern agriculturists. It is undoubtedly 

 a great advantage as applied to all deep soils, and more 

 particularly to clayey loams ; but it will unquestionably 

 benefit any soil ultimately, although some sands and 

 gravels may not at first evidence it. Deep cultivation 

 when applied to adhesive clays requires care and judg- 

 ment. It is not desirable to drag up too much stiff or 

 hard clay from the subsoil at one operation, as it will 

 take more than one season to ameliorate it and bring it 

 into fruitful action, and the consequent partial 

 loss of crop for a year or two. The best practice with 

 heavy clays is to bring up the subsoil gradually, year 

 by year, and thus mingle it with surface soil till a deeply 

 pulverized soil has been attained. It is then that it be- 

 comes one of the most valuable of all soils, and capable 

 of bearing a long succession of heavy cropping ; the 

 retention of the manures applied, and the disintegration 

 * of its innate ammonia, adding greatly to its fertility. 

 In almost every other variety of soil, the subsoil when 

 brought to the surface comes more directly into fertile 

 action, and amply repays the outlay. It is almost in- 

 dispensable in the production of a heavy root crop. 

 Long mangolds revel luxuriantly in a deep well-pulver- 

 ized soil. Potatoes seem quite at home in a deeply 

 worked loam or clayey loam. Turnips prosper exceed- 

 inly in lighter soils, also deeply worked ; and these are 

 all the better by being subsequently rolled, or consoli- 

 dated in some way. There should never be a vacuum 

 between the root of the plant and the subsoil, hence 

 compression is necessary to bring a crop to full per- 

 fection. In a dry season it is imperative. In wet sea- 

 sons the soil becomes naturally compressed by the rains 

 falling, and atmospheric action upon it. In fact, and 

 speaking generally, the soil requires that preparation 

 which will permit the roots and fibres cf plants to find 

 food in the greatest abundance amongst the pores and 

 the clefts and crevices made by good and suitable 

 pulverization in the soils cultivated. 



The first and most effective way of obtaining this 

 suitable culture is by deep winter ploughing. I am 

 glad to find this practice is much on the increase. The 

 implement-makers of the present day have done good 

 service in producing ploughs for deep work at a mode- 

 rate cost, and fully up to the requirementsof the various 

 soils. The heavy-land ploughs are strong and compact, 

 and do the work admirably, at a moderate price per 

 acre. The light-land ploughs do very well upon light 

 soils, with a larger " mould-board" on than for com- 

 mon ploughing. Any useful plough can be made to 

 plough any reasonable depth, but it is generally attended 

 with much extra draught. It is best to have suitable 

 ploughs for the service. My occupation is rather a 

 strong loam ; 1 am using two of Ransome's and one of 

 Howard's common-purpose ploughs daily, with the 

 higher mould-boards on ; with these, drawn by three 

 horses each, " unicorn fashion," i.e., two abreast, and 

 the leading horse down the furrow, we are ploughing 

 furrows from eleven to twelve inches wide and nine to 

 ten inches deep. It is true the furrows lie or almost 

 stand too perpendicularly for a judge's eye, but they ap- 

 pear just right to catch every advantage from atmos- 

 pheric influences and the amelioration of frosts, and 

 from which the rains pass down to the subsoil drains 

 without poaching or injury. I have adopted this prac- 

 tice for many years, and one of the advantages derived 



is, that a Biddell, Bentall, or steam-cultivator will pass 

 readily through the furrows transversely when required, 

 or in the spring, and thus save the great labour and 

 cost of cross-ploughing, and at the same time pulverizing 

 the soil equal to the cross-ploughing and scarifying 

 combined. Of course, we take care to work our scari- 

 fiers when the soil is dry and in right condition for 

 cross-ploughing. My mangolds of this year (twenty- 

 five acres) were produced after a crossing of this kind, 

 and proved an excellent crop. For potatoes it is an 

 excellent preparation, and if it can be conveniently 

 crossed in fine weather in the months of January or 

 February, often does much to forward the planting. 



But there are other crops for which, if it is not alto- 

 gether requisite, it is very convenient that the ploughing 

 be proceeded with in the winter. Hence much land is 

 " ploughed fleet" for barley, upon thin barley soils. On 

 strong clays, too, much land is winter-ploughed for 

 beans and peas. Both ways constitute good farm prac- 

 tice, according to the soils. The chief thing is, to take 

 care that in no case should the land be ploughed when 

 it is not in a proper state. To plough heavy-clay land 

 when saturated with wet is a partial kneading, as for 

 brick-earth ; and to plough light, sandy land after a dry 

 frost, is turning it up for a February or March hurri- 

 cane. The farmer's judgment must be his guide as to 

 the proper time and condition of the soil for ploughing. 

 Clay lands are much benefited by being turned up for a 

 frost ; and it saves much working at seedtime. Turnip 

 lands should be ploughed immediately the turnips are 

 fed off. It adds much to their fertility, in securing the 

 sheep-droppings as manure. Grass lands to be con- 

 verted into arable may advantageously be ploughed in 

 the winter. The grassy sod becomes rotted, and forms 

 an admirable manure for the potato or mustard crop, to 

 which such converted lands ought in almost all cases to 

 be appropriated. It is seldom that a cereal crop is 

 prosperous on " new land" — plenty of straw, but little 

 grain. 



I know not how to offer a word of advice, in this 

 most difficult of all seasons, for winter ploughing. I 

 can only reiterate what I have often said — i. e., to see 

 that everything is done in a business-like way, or to let 

 it alone, and wait a more suitable time. It is per- 

 plexing when it is found requisite to do all the work of 

 the farm in a short space of time ; but it is better to 

 wait than to do business foolishly. We must also 

 bear in mind that science is rapidly advancing to our 

 aid ; and what would take our teams weeks to accom- 

 plish, the power of steam can effect in a few days. In 

 this way, we are becoming almost independent of 

 seasons. I am fully convinced that, on the majority of 

 strong lands, it is wrong to plough at present. By all 

 means, wait awhile. We may have a fine dry Feb- 

 ruary. At all events, it is in good time yet; and if, in- 

 deed, worse goes on to worse, and we have to wait till 

 spring, we must then have double diligence, as well as 

 use and hire all the teams we can procure, and, where 

 practicable, call in the aid of steam. Every farmer 

 knows that, if he ploughs his land in a wet state, it 

 takes much extra working either to prepare it for a 

 seed-bed or in fallowing ; so that no time is, in reality, 

 lost by waiting ; and it is very certain that in almost all 

 cases a much better crop is likely to be realized, from 

 the inherent virtues of the soil being disintegrated by a 

 summer's sun rather than a winter's frost, and the 

 variable weather of the past two months. 



