THE FARMER'S MANUAL. 



true ; he knows that he should never turn his furrow 

 wider than the plough-share will cut clean ; but al- 

 ways as much narrower, as the stiffness of the soil 

 shall render necessary, to lay his furrows smooth 

 and light, and free from, clods; in all such cases of 

 narrow furrows, the extra expense of ploughing, will 

 be saved in the expense of harrowing, with this ad- 

 vantage to the crop, that the harrow pulverizes only 

 the surface ; but the plough, when properly directed, 

 renders the earth mellow, to the whole depth of the 

 furrow. This again involves the question, How deep 

 is best ? To this I shall reply particularly, as it has 

 become one of the most important questions in field 

 husbandry. When you turn in a stiff, or clover sward, 

 for corn, or potatoes, let your plough cut to the depth 

 of 8 or 10 inches, if the substratum is not an im- 

 penetrable substance; you will thus lay the founda- 

 tion for a deep soil for ever, in your after tillage. 

 Your corn, or potatoes, when planted, will lie below 

 the dead earth raised from the bottoms of your fur- 

 rows, and will strike their roots into the rich mould 

 which you turned down from the surface. The sun, 

 air, and rains, together with such manure as you may 

 apply, either iff the hill, or by way of top-dressings, 

 about the hills, will all fertilize the dead earth so 

 turned up, and render it food for plants. The frosts 

 of the next winter will further improve this dead sur- 

 face, and thus, by the next season, when commixed 

 with the original mould, by a deep ploughing of the 

 same depth, the whole will become a deep, rich, and 

 fertile soil, and may ever afterward be ploughed to the 

 same depth for the culture of any crops. The same 

 is true, in a degree, of stubble grounds, ploughed, 

 or ridged in in the summer, after harvest : or of tur- 

 nip ground fed by sheep, or of clover, or buck- wheat 

 grounds, ploughed in, as fertilizing crops ; but where 

 you plough your fallows for wheat, rye, oats, barley, 

 or turnips, you will never succeed in deepening your 

 soil below the natural mould, unless you have first 



