6 



ill that respect. In a few days any pair of bullocks Avill learn to 

 walk steadily if attended to by a good cooly. Bullocks walk better 

 when dragging the plough in a pole fixed to the shoulder harness 

 than when dragging by means of an ordinary rope. 



When ploughing the first time with the small plough one pair 

 of bullocks wath two coolies were only able to treat three-fourths of 

 an aci"e per day, but with the bigger plough at the second and 

 subsequent plougliiugs they can do as much as one acre per day. It 

 should be mentioned here that the soil is vei^y light, consisting 

 chiefly of a sandy loam. 



The cost of ploughing with everything included, wages to coolies, 

 bullock food and depreciation on bullocks, and machinery comes to 

 abut 12.40 per acre. Harrowing is cheaper, as a team can treat 

 four acres per day. The harrow we use is divided into three parts, 

 each two feet wide, and this construction makes it possible to treat 

 undulating ground better than with a harrow in one piece. The 

 harrow is used partly for levelling the ground and partly for 

 checking grass in young clearings. In old clearings they are not 

 used. 



Out of the 2,200 acres 12 teams usually plough about 300 acres 

 per month, and the ground can thus be treated about twice a year. 



The ploughs, going to a depth of about five inches, turn the soil 

 so well that the ordinary small kinds of gi-asses arc buried, com- 

 pletely. On a well-cultivated soil such grasses do no harm, they 

 help to prevent wash, and they increase the humus in the soil Avhen 

 ploughed down. 



When the talk is about toxins, I presume that these are formed 

 where the grass cover is kept more permanently. I said before that 

 clean weeding is the cheapest, but the cost where ploughs are used 

 does not come to much more. The land must be gone over once a 

 month to remove obnoxious weeds and small bushes, but the expenses 

 incurred by this work, added to the cost of ploughing and harrowing, 

 average only about 80 cents per acre per month. 



Where ploughing is commenced before the trees are three years 

 old the soil can be treated to within one and a half feet of the rows of tlie 

 trees. Later on it may not be safe to go quite so close, but I see no reason 

 why ploughing, when started early, should not be continued also 

 Avlien the trees grow big, anyhow where thinning is gaiTied out 

 judiciously. 



The plough furrows should as far as feasible run across the 

 slopes on hills, as otherwise there is the danger that those left open 

 when the ploughing is finished will be acting as drains. 



At the first ploughing, and also occasionally at the second, it 

 happens that fairly big roots are cut, but 1 have so far seen no bad 

 effect from this. 



