FERTILIZERS — PLOWING. 517 



valued by many, the clean-up of barn and stock yards, if 

 taken to the field at all, being in such condition as to be com- 

 paratively worthless, the sole object appearing to be to rid 

 themselves of accumulated heaps of filth. The better plan, 

 and one I have adopted, is to clean the yards in the Spring, 

 or cai-iy Summer, by throwing the accumulation into as large 

 heaps as convenient without loading and hauling. By Fall 

 these heaps are so decomposed that when properly applied 

 to the soil and plowed under, the ir/^.nure is of much greater 

 value than it could otherwise have been. In applying fertil- 

 izers to meadow land, the best time I have ever found is 

 during the Winter, or when the ground is frozen, if it can be 

 done; it then gets the Spring rains, and is well dissolved by 

 the time the young grass starts up, which is not smothered or 

 choked out. 



PLOWING. 



The matter of plowing land, cultivating crops, and the 

 direction in which the furrows are left open, both as a means 

 of open drains, and to prevent the unnecessary washing away 

 of soil, is too often neglected. The best method for ascertain- 

 ing the course in which plowing should be done and the 

 furrows kept open on level land, is to go over the field soon 

 after a heavy fall of rain and note the direction in which the 

 water naturally flows, and be governed accoixlingly. Plowing 

 land and cultivating crops deeply should be the rule and not 

 the exception. Tho subsoil plow may be profitably used every 

 two or three j^ears, both as a drain in wet and a preventive 

 against crops suffering in very dry seasons. 



ROTATION OF CROPS. 

 I also give particular attention to the rotation of crops, 

 never cultivating or growing the same variety of grain on 

 ground for more than two consecutive years. 



MIXING SEEDS. 



Another method of increasing the yield of crops is by 

 mixing seeds, viz. : In corn, wo mix red, yellow and Avhite, of 

 both early and late, in equal quantities ; in wheat, the different. 



