METHODS OF PLOWING, ETC. 169 



contact with the soil are all points that may be affected and should 

 be considered in plowing or preparing the soil for planting, as should 

 the destruction of weeds and weed seeds and the prevention of bak- 

 ing, and contracting and straining of delicate roots in clayey soils. 



As actual experience goes for more than simple theory, I offer 

 you an account of the preparation of the ground for my own home 

 fruits. The experience is limited but was had with a view to ac- 

 complishing desired effects, as mentioned before. 



The ground selected was chosen not because of the adaptability 

 of the soil but for the convenience of location. It had a thin, clayey 

 surface soil with a yellow clay subsoil, and this again underlaid with 

 sand. It had been under cultivation for about forty years and had, 

 probably, raised twenty-five crops of wheat, quite a number of oats 

 and a few of corn. But little manure had been added in the time 

 mentioned. To emphasize the condition, I may say that it was prob- 

 ably the poorest piece of ground on the farm for producing a crop 

 of grain, and the general condition of the farm may be understood 

 from the fact that it had been rented for about fifteen years, had had 

 no stock on it for ten years, and the year preceding the entire crop 

 had to be given to induce anybody to work the place. 



In the year 1890 this piece was sowed to oats and seeded to 

 clover and timothy. The following spring it was fenced, and some 

 hogs with no rings in the nose were turned in to give it its first plow- 

 ing as a preparation for the planting of fruit. After having the com- 

 panionship of the hog for several years, this ground was completely 

 covered with strawy barnyard manure. In the spring of 1897 it was 

 plowed from eight to ten inches deep with an eighteen-inch plow and 

 three horses. On top of the plowing in its rough state went another 

 coat of the strawy manure. Then followed the disc harrow loaded 

 with about one hundred pounds of stone on each side (as we do in 

 preparing a cornfield) and with a man in the middle. This, alternated 

 with the slant-toothed harrow, maybe half-a-dozen times, firmed it 

 and incorporated the straw and manure with the upper three or four 

 inches of surface soil. The ground was then sowed to millet in June, 

 and on this millet another coat of strawy manure was put, and the 

 millet cut off in the fall with a binder, to prevent gathering the 

 manure with the hay. Another plowing in the fall, another light coat 

 of manure in the spring of 1898, and another attempt to disc this in. 

 But we found ourselves in trouble now. The mechanical condition 

 of our ground had changed so that ahhough we went over it several 

 times with disc and slant-toothed harrow, we had to return to the 

 plow and three horses again to work this last dressing into the 



