8 WOECESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1878. 



Mr. Chamberlain said a rolled surface will evaporate moisture more 

 quickly than a loose, rough one, but a bush compacts the soil about the 

 seed while it leaves the surface rough. 



Mr. Sears said just for that reason he didn't want a bush ; he wanted a 

 smooth surface over a loose soil, and the roller gives it perfectly. 



Mr. Chamberlain related his experience where he had carted a large 

 quantity of manure over a field of corn after it was planted, and the cart 

 track grew the best corn. 



Mr. Hadwen introduced a description of an implement suggested by 

 Mr. Ware of Marblehead, — a stone boat with slats on its under surface, 

 which gather the clods and crushes them much better than either roller 

 or bush, especially for finishing after seeding ground. 



Mr. Sears said the implement will work well where there are no stones, 

 but it is not adapted to this locality ; it pushes the stones along, leaves 

 furrows and does not leave smooth work. 



Mr. Merrifield, president, said he had used the implement ; it works 

 well except where there are large stones ; the smaller stones are crushed 

 into the soil ; he put the slats on at an angle, securing a drawing stroke 

 on the soil, securing it easier working ; he considered it worth more than 

 a roller. He also spoke of another implement he had made to crush 

 manure on grass land ; it is of oak plank, five feet square, and filled with 

 short pins of one inch iron, projecting about an inch ; it works admirably, 

 breaking all the lumps and leaving the sod in good condition. He said 

 every farmer must decide on deep or shallow ploughing only on the merits 

 of each field by itself ; he spoke of Prof. Mape's ideas of subsoiling, which 

 he had put in practice, using a share which lifted and broke the earth 

 below the'first ploughing of eleven inches deep ; ground ploughed thus 

 twenty-five years ago and not ploughed since produces two and a half 

 tons of grass to the acre ; he had spaded a small section of the field twelve 

 years after, and found first about ten inches of light soil, then a shell of 

 soil which required picking, and under that a foot of light soil ; trees and 

 o-rass wrew wonderfully well there ; the deep soil absorbs moisture best, 

 and hard ground freezes most quickly. He did not approve deep soil for 

 grapes, for the roots need the sun ; if the fertilizers are put near the top 

 of the soil the roots will stay there. In regard to applying manure, he 

 believed in ploughing and then applying the manure near the surface ; 

 he would break up a field in the spring, turn the sod well under, spread 

 on the manure, and then pulverize it ready for the crop. 



Mr. Joseph Lovell advocated ploughing the manure in deep, and then 

 putting something in the hill to give the plant a start, leaving it to find 

 the deeper manure when it was needed later in the season. He quoted 

 the practice on the sea-coast of trenching soil three feet deep and putting 

 sea weed and manure at the bottom. 



