XY. 



PLOWING GOOD AND BAD. 



THERE are so many wrong ways to do a thing to 

 but one right one that there is no reason in the im- 

 patience too often evinced with those who contrive 

 to swallow the truth wrong end foremost, and there- 

 upon insist that it won't do. For instance : A farmer 

 hears something said of deep plowing, and, without 

 any clear understanding of or firm faith in it, resolves 

 to give it a trial. So he buys a great plow, makes up 

 a strong team, and proceeds to turn up a field hitherto 

 plowed but six inches to a depth of a foot : in other 

 words, to bury its soil under six inches of cold, sterile 

 clay, sand, or gravel. On this, he plants or sows 

 grain, and is lucky indeed if he realizes half a crop. 

 Hereupon, he reports to his neighbors that Deep 

 Plowing is a humbug, as he suspected all along ; but 

 now he knows, for he has tried it. There are several 

 other wrong ways, which I will hurry over, in order 

 to set forth that which I regard as the right one. 



Here is a middling farmer of the old school, who 

 walks carefully in the footsteps of his respected 

 grandfather, but with inferior success, because sixty 



(90 



