86 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



crops planted thereon. And I saw, last Summer, on 

 the intervale of New River, in the western part of 

 Old Yirginia, many acres of Corn which were thrifty 

 and luxuriant in spite of shallow plowing and in- 

 tense drouth, because the rich, black loam which had 

 there been deposited by semi-annual inundations, 

 until its depth ranged from two to twenty feet, was so 

 inviting and permeable that the corn-roots ran below 

 the bottom of the furrow about as readily as above 

 that line. I do not doubt that there are many mil- 

 lions of acres of such land that would produce tol- 

 erably, and sometimes bounteously, though simply 

 scratched over by a brush harrow and never plowed 

 at all. In the infancy of our race, when there were 

 few mouths to fill and when farming implements 

 were very rude and ineffective, cultivation was all 

 but confined to these facile strips and patches, so 

 that the utility, the need, of deep tillage was not ap- 

 parent. And yet, we know the crops often failed 

 utterly in those days, plunging whole nations into 

 the miseries of famine. 



The primitive plow was a forked stick or tree-top, 

 whereof one prong formed the coulter, the other and 

 longer the beam; and he who first sharpened the 

 coulter-prong with a stone hatchet was the Whitney 

 or McCormick of his day. The plow in common use 

 to-day in Spain or Turkey is an improvement on 

 this, for it has an iron point ; still, it is a miserable 

 tool. When, at five years old, I first rode the horse 

 which drew my father's plow in furrowing for or culti- 



