XYI. 



THOROUGH TILLAGE. 



MY little, hilly, rocky farm teaches lessons of thor- 

 oughness which I would gladly impart to the boys 

 of to-day who are destined to be the farmers of the 

 last quarter of this century. I am sure they will find 

 profit in farming better than their grandfathers did, 

 and especially in putting their land into the best possi- 

 ble condition for effective tillage. There were stones 

 in my fields varying in size from that of a brass kettle 

 up to that of a hay-cock some of them raising their 

 heads above the surface, others burrowing just below 

 it which had been plowed around and over perhaps 

 a hundred times, till I went at them with team and 

 bar, or (where necessary) with drill and blast, turned 

 or blew them out, and hauled them away, so that they 

 will interfere with cultivation nevermore. I insist 

 that this is a profitable operation that a field which 

 will not pay for such clearing should be planted with 

 trees and thrown out of cultivation conclusively. 

 Dodging and skulking from rock to rock is hard upon 

 team, plow, and plowman ; and it can rarely pay. 

 Land ribbed and spotted with fast rocks will pay if 

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