FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 29,3 



Ploughs are sometimes constructed with two handles, 

 and sometimes with but one. One is sufficient ; two is only 

 productive or more expense. The handle should lean con- 

 siderably back; and it should have a pin set in behind, near 

 the upper end, to take hold of, and for the lines to rest on, 

 where Horses are used in ploughing. 



A small handplough might, as is believed, be very advan- 

 tageously used tor the purpose of eradicating weeds among 

 several kinds of growing crops of roots ; such as onions, 

 carrots, parsnips, Sec. It should have two light handles, 

 leaning well backward, of the length of, say, four and a 

 half feet, or of such length as will be found most proper 

 for the purpose of flushing the plough forward by hand. 



It should have a beam, and share, of such dimensions 

 that the plough would cut a furrow of, say, an inch in 

 depth, and about four inches wide. The share should be 

 shaped similar to that of the large plough, before mention- 

 ed ; and it should be kept well ground, so as to cut off all 

 the roots of weeds which come in its way. 



For the purpose of regulating the depth that it should 

 run, it may have a wheel, or roller, placed under the lore- 

 end of the beam ; though it is believed that, in skilful 

 hands, this would not be necessary. It should be run close 

 to the rows of roots, turning the furrow from them, in the 

 first place, and then turning it back to them again. 



PLOUGHING Mr. Livingston mentions an experiment 

 made, by which it was ascertained, that dew, when evapo- 

 rated, is found to contain a rich sediment, that rainwater 

 does not possess ; and hence may be adduced a good reason 

 for the commonly-received opinion, that ground is most ben- 

 efited by ploughing while the dew is on. 



In preparing for a crop, some lands require to be oftener, 

 and some to be deeper, ploughed, than others. The stiff 

 and clay soils require the most ploughing, and the gravelly 

 soil the deepest. The more dry and gravelly the soil, the 

 deeper it should be ploughed, in order to enable it to with- 

 stand the droughts of Summer; and the more stiff and 

 clayey the soil, the ottener it should be ploughed, and also 

 rolled, and harrowed, in order to reduce it to a fine ulth, 

 and to raise in it that state of fermentation, each of which, 

 in such soils, is essentially necessary for the growing of 

 crops. 



It may indeed be laid down, as a general rule, that every 

 kind of soil should be in a finely-pulverized state, before it 

 is? applied to the growing of crops; but some soils are 

 much easier reduced to this state, than others. The light 

 sandy soil is easily mellowed: It neither requires much 

 ploughing, nor need the ploughing be very deep; but this 



