BAGA CULTURE 



result of numerous experiments, I should, if visited with long 

 droughts, give one or two additional ploughings between the crops 

 when growing. That is all ; and, with this, in Long Island, I 

 defy all droughts. 



123. But, why need I insist upon this effect of ploughing in 

 dry weather ? Why need I insist on it in an Indian corn country ? 

 Who has not seen fields of Indian corn looking, to-day, yellow 

 and sickly, and, in four days hence (the weather being dry all the 

 while), looking green and flourishing ; and this wonderful effect 

 produced merely by the plough ? Why, then, should not the 

 same effect always proceed from the same cause ? The deeper 

 you plough, the greater the effect, however ; for there is a greater 

 body of earth to exhale from, and to receive back the tribute of the 

 atmosphere. Mr. CURWEN tells us of a piece of cattle-cabbages. 

 In a very dry time in July, they looked so yellow and blue, that he 

 almost despaired of them. He sent in his ploughs ; and a gentle 

 man, who had seen them when the ploughs went in en. the Monday, 

 could scarcely believe his eyes when he saw them on the next 

 Saturday, though it had continued dry all the week. 



124. To perform these summer ploughings, in this island, is 

 really nothing. The earth is so light and in such fine order, and 

 so easily displaced and replaced. I used one horse for the pur 

 pose, last summer, and a very slight horse indeed. An ox is, 

 however, better for this work ; and this may be accomplished by 

 the use of a collar and two traces, or by a single yoke and two 

 traces. TULL recommends the latter ; and I shall try it for Indian 

 corn as well as for turnips.* Horses, if they are strong enough, 

 are not so steady as oxen, which are more patient also, and with 

 which you may send the plough-share down without any of the 

 fretting and unequal pulling, or jerking, that you have to en 

 counter with horses. And, as to the slow pace of the ox, it is the 

 old story of the tortoise and the hare. If I had known, in England, 

 of the use of oxen, what I have been taught upon Long Island, I 



* Since the above paragraph was written, I have made a single- 

 ox-yoke; and, I find it answer excellently well. Now, my work is 

 much shortened ; for, in forming ridges, two oxen are awkward. 

 They occupy a wide space, and one of them is obliged to valk 

 upon the ploughed land, which, besides making the ridge uneven 

 at top, presses the ground, which is injurious. For ploughing 

 between the rows of turnips and Indian corn also, what a great 

 convenience this will be! An ox goes steadier than a horse, and 

 will plough deeper, without fretting and without tearing; and he 

 wants neither harness-maker nor groom. The plan of my yoke I 

 took from TULL. I showed it to my W9rkman. who chopped off 

 the limb of a tree, and made the yoke in an hour. It is a piece 

 of wood, with two holes to receive two ropes, about three quar 

 ters of an inch in diameter. These traces are fastened into the 

 yoke merely by a knot, which prevents the ends from passing 

 through the holes, while the other ends are fastened to the two 

 ends of a Wiffle-tree, as it is called in Long Island, of a Wipple- 

 tree, as it is called in Kent, and of a Wippance, as it is called 

 in Hampshire. I am but a poor draftsman; bi)t, if the printer 

 can find any thing to make the representation with, the following 



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