100 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



gales are freighted witli the more volatile elements 

 of decaying vegetation. These, taken up wherever 

 they are given off in excess, are wafted to and de- 

 posited in the soils best fitted for their reception. 

 Regarded simply as a method of fertilizing, I do not 

 say that Fall Plowing is the cheapest ; I do say that 

 any poor field, if < well plowed in the Fall, will be in 

 better heart the next Spring, for what wind and rain 

 will meantime have deposited thereon. Frost, too, 

 in any region where the ground freezes, and es- 

 pecially where it freezes and thaws repeatedly, plays 

 an important and beneficial part in aerating and pul- 

 verizing a freshly plowed soil, especially one thrown 

 up into ridges, so as to be most thoroughly exposed to 

 the action of the more volatile elements. The farmer 

 who has a good team may profitably keep the plow 

 running in Autumn until every rood that he means 

 to till next season has been thoroughly pulverized. 



In this section, our minute chequer-work of fences 

 operates to obstruct and impede Plowing. Our pre- 

 decessors wished to clear their fields, at least super- 

 ficially, of the loose, troublesome bowlders of granite 

 wherewith they were so thickly sown ; they mistak- 

 enly fancied that they could lighten their own toil 

 by sending their cattle to graze, browse, and gnaw, 

 wherever a crop was not actually on the ground ; so 

 they fenced their farms into patches of two or ten 

 acres, and thought they had thereby increased their 

 value ! That was a sad miscalculation. Weeds, 

 briars and bushes were sheltered and nourished by 



