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run about half as deep as usual ; and turn half of this strip with 

 the team going up the slope, if the ground is not about level. In 

 turning the last furrow let the team go down the slope, because 

 the last furrow is much more difficult to turn than any other ; and 

 it is less difficult to turn it when going down hill. Remove en 

 tirely, or raise the gauge-wheel higher than usual, while plowing 

 the last furrow, and then let the plow run along once or twice to 

 break up the soil where the next to the last furrow was cut shal 

 low. This leaves the middle furrow full of mellow earth, instead 

 of leaving a space about two feet wide with little or no super-soil 

 on it. Having finished the field in this manner, the last thing 

 will be, 



PLOWING THE HEADLANDS. 



474. If the soil is about level and smooth, plow the headlands 

 by passing round and round the field, turning the furrows inwards. 

 If the soil was turned away from the fence when plowed last, 

 turn it towards the fence. This manner of plowing headlands is 

 infinitely better, and more plowman-like, than it is to plow the 

 headlands in a land, or back-furrow, which is the common prac 

 tice. If a strip twenty feet wide is left entirely around the field, 

 there is no disadvantage in it. It is as important to keep the 

 surface of the soil smooth along the margin of a field as it is near 

 the middle of it. 



475. Many plowmen will insist on plowing very wide back- 

 furrows and lands, and will plow across the ends of the lands. 

 But the practice is by no means so good a one as it is to leave 

 a wide headland. The headlands should always be plowed last ; 

 because, if plowed first the soil in many places will be trodden 

 down so firmly that it would need to be plowed again when the 

 field is finished. 



476. Plowing side-hills and throwing the furrows down hill 

 year after year is not a good practice, because every plowing re 

 moves the soil of the entire field down the slope about one foot 

 farther ; and on the lower side of the field the soil would be piled 

 up in a huge ridge, while there would be in a few years a wide 



