PLOWING GOOD^ND BAD. 95 



coming, when Steam shall have been so harnessed to 

 a gang of six to twelve plows that, with one man 

 guiding and firing, it will move as fast as a man 

 ought to walk, steaming on and thoroughly pulver- 

 izing from twelve to twenty-five acres per day, I be- 

 lieve we shall plow at least two feet deep, and plow 

 not less than twice before putting in any crop what- 

 ever. Then we may lay down a field in the confi- 

 dent trust that it will yield from two and a half to 

 three tuns of good hay per annum for the next ten 

 or twelve years ; while, by the help of irrigation and 

 occasional top-dressing, it may be made to average 

 at least three tuns for a life-time, if not forever. 



When my Grass-land requires breaking up as it 

 sometimes does I understand that it was not prop- 

 erly laid down, or has not been been well treated 

 since. A good grazing farmer once insisted in my 

 hearing that grass-land should never be plowed that 

 the vegetable mold forming the surface, when the 

 timber was first cut off, should remain on the surface 

 forever. Considering how uneven the stumps and 

 roots and cradle-knolls of a primitive forest are apt 

 to leave the ground, I judge that this is an extreme 

 statement. But land once thoroughly plowed and 

 subsoiled ought thereafter to be kept in grass by 

 liberal applications of Gypsum, well-cured Muck, 

 and barn-yard Manure to its surface, without needing 

 to be plowed again and reseeded. Put back in 

 Manure what is taken off in Hay, and the Grass 

 should hold its own. 



