THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 337 



first determine how wide his headland (see Par. 465) must be in 

 order to give the team sufficient room to turn at the ends of the 

 lands. If a field is to be plowed by going directly around the 

 outside, there will be nothing to do but to go ahead and keep 

 plowing until the field is all plowed. But when a field is to be 

 plowed by lands, having determined which way to plow it, run 

 the plow along say ten, or any number of feet distant from the 

 edges of the field, which will be at the ends of the furrows, mak 

 ing a shallow mark not plowing a furrow with the point of the 

 plow. Now always turn out the plow and set it in exactly at 

 these marks. Now measure off a strip with the rod-pole (see Par. 

 695) on both sides of the field, just as wide as the headland strips. 

 This strip entirely around the field must be left to be plowed last. 

 Now plow a back furrow on the farther side of the field, leaving 

 a strip as wide as the headland. Commence on the farther side 

 first, so that the team will not trample the plowed soil in going to 

 and from work. Now if grain is to be sowed by hand, (see 

 SOWING GRAIN BY HAND, 493,) it is best to have the middle 

 furrows of exactly equal distances apart, and the ridges exactly as 

 far apart as the middle furrows are. I always calculate to sow 

 about forty-two feet at two rounds. Therefore, measure off forty- 

 two feet from the first ridge, and turn another ridge, as straight 

 as a line, and back-furrow just as many furrows on every succeed 

 ing ridge as there were furrows on the first ridge ; and commence 

 to turn a ridge every time at the same end that you commenced 

 at when the first ridge was turned. If a plowman commences at 

 one end in striking out one ridge, and at the other end of the field 

 for the next ridge, and plows one or two furrows more on one 

 ridge than he does on another, the ridges may be equidistant 

 apart ; but the middle furrows will be of very unequal distances 

 apart. This will be a bad arrangement when grain is sowed by 

 hand, with ridges and furrows for guides. 



470. When striking out a land or a ridge, the first furrow 

 always requires much more strength of team to turn it than is 

 required after one furrow has been turned. And the draft of a 

 plow needs a different adjustment with the clevis, usually, to run 



