FARiMER's ASSISTANT. 295 



Ploughing should always be done effectually. Of what- 

 ever depth the soil is to be ploughed, every part should be 

 turn* d up, or loosened, to that depth. The furrows, there- 

 iore, should not be too wide- for, if tht;y are, pans of the 

 ground will remain unturned, or unloosened. In order that 

 ihe ploughing be completely" performed, the plough should 

 run perfectly flat, and be ol the best construction. 

 Sec PLOUGH 



Among mo*i Farmers, it is the practice constantly to 

 turn the furrows against the fences; but this is slovenly 

 culture, and is injurious to the land. The uppermost part 

 of almost every soil is the richest. Now, if you keep con- 

 stantly ploughing the land next lo the fence with a cleaving- 

 iurrow, this upper layer of the soil becomes, at length, all 

 thrown up against the fence, on the one side of the land, 

 and into an useless heap on the other; and, to supply the 

 place of the soil thus thrown off on each side, the crude 

 earth below must be thrown up; and this earth will require 

 considerable time, tillage, and manuring, to make it as good 

 as the soil which has thus been improvidemly turned off 

 from the surface of the fi< Id. 



This matter is the more worthy of attention, as it re- 

 quires no trouble whatever to correct this slovenly practice: 

 All that is necessary is, to plough the lands next to the 

 fences as often with a gathering, as with a cleaving, furrow 5 

 or, in other words, to plough as often irom the fence, as 

 against it. Indeed, it would be desirable, in every part of 

 the field, to have the gathering-furrows always at the places 

 where the last parting furrows were made. This would 

 serve to keep the layer of vegetable mould spread evenly 

 over the surface, which is a matter of more consequence 

 to the growing crop, than is generally imagined. 



In the ploughed field, the gathering-furrows of repeated 

 ploughings will frequently happen to be nearly in the same 

 places; of course, the parting-furrows will be nearly to- 

 gether in other parts. By these means, the vegetable mould 

 becomes unevenly spread over the furface ; in some places 

 it is deeper than is necessary, and in others too scanty; and 

 this is usually productive of a proportionate deficiency in 

 the growing crop, where the mould is too thin, without a 

 coresponding increase, where the mould is deeper than is 

 necessary. 



Now, all that is requisite, in orckr to remedy this incon- 

 \enience, is to have the field marked out into lands, and 

 then to plough these with cleaving, and gathering, furrows, 

 ulternately ; and, to mark out the lands, it is only necessary 

 to measure their widths on the four sides of the field, and 

 then to designate the extent of each land by visible marks, 

 fastened on the fences on the different sides of the field, 



