IMPORTANCE OF GOOD PLOWIXC. 179 



fectly done, and the soil is not well turned, no after opera- 

 tion can be fully effective however well it may be performed; 

 and the crops must necessarily suffer. 



The mold board of a plow has a complex curve intended 

 to raise the furrow slice and turn it over on its edge at vary- 

 ing angles, or to entirely reverse it. The latter operation 

 is rarely practiced, and generally the furrow slices are laid 

 over at an angle not far from 45 degrees. This is the best 

 position for all sorts of plowing, excepting perhaps for fal- 

 lowing land and destroying weeds; but this last mentioned 

 necessity should never occur in the best culture of farm 

 crops, and it is one of the purposes of this work to show 

 how this necessity may be avoided by thorough culture of 

 the soil. American plows are made with a short, sharply- 

 curving mold board, which bends the furrow slice so much 

 as to crack and break it, and so to leave stubble land par- 

 tially pulverized, unless the soil is quite stiff clay, and then 

 it is considerably loosened and broken, when it is in the 

 right condition for plowing, and not too wet or too dry. 



The soil should be in this right condition before the plow 

 is put into it. When it is too wet, the passage of the plow 

 through it draws over and plasters the surface, and instead 

 of breaking it, leaves it tough and compact. Then the 

 furrow slices dry hard and cloddy, and no amount of har- 

 rowing will reduce the land to a fine tilth. Not even, the 

 Acme harrow, the most perfect implement of the kind that 

 has been devised or made, can fully overcome the injury 

 thus done to the land, which may remain for many years. 

 When the soil is too dry, the plow can scarcely be kept to 

 the proper depth, and the land is turned up in clods 

 which are equally refractory under the harrow. This of 

 course refers more particularly to clay soils, but lighter 

 loams may be injured for the season, or for years, by being 

 plowed when too wet. 



The farmer who desires to secure the best results of his 

 labor in plowing, should choose the time w T hen the land is 

 moist but not wet, and when it may be pressed by the hand 

 into a ball which will cohere and retain its shape, until it 



