No. 2. 



Plovghing and Ploughs. 



65 



The following highly interesting article 

 ■\ve commend to the attentive perusal of 

 every farmer, as every farmer has an inter- 

 est, not imaginary, but real, in the subject. 

 It is from the pen of E. Pinney, Esq., one of 

 tlie most successful and scientific farmers in 

 the old Bay State. We have on file, and may 

 possibly serve it up to our readers in our next, 

 as a rich treat, an account of a recent visit to 

 Mr. Pinney's farm, his mode of culture, &c. 

 &c. The foUoviring article is from the Bos- 

 ton Courier, for which paper it was furnished 

 by request 



Plougliing and Ploughs* 



Ploughing is considered by all farmers as 

 the most important agricultural operation, 

 cither as it regards the immediate crop, or 

 the future and permanent improvement of 

 the soil. The farmer, who so manages his 

 field, as to produce, in the main, the greatest 

 reward for the labor and expense bestowed, 

 will undoubtedly be considered as acting with 

 a sounder discretion, than he whose sole ob- 

 ject is a present crop, without regarding the 

 permanent improvement of his fields. To 

 deepen the soil, by bringing to the surface at 

 each successive ploughing, a portion of the 

 poorer sub-soil, and thereby exposing it to 

 the enriching influence of the atmosphere, 

 and to cover up and preserve from wasiiing 

 rains, and wasting winds, the light vegetable 

 matter upon the surface, as well as to facili- 

 tate the subsequent operations of the hus- 

 bandman, are the only important uses of the 

 plough. 



Our old fields are rapidly approaching to a 

 state of utter sterility. At each successive 

 rotation of crops tlie vegetable mould is be- 

 coming thinner, and the product less ; and the 

 plough, in the hands of most farmers, so fir 

 from deepening the soil, and increasing its 

 powers of producing, is really exhausting it 

 of all its natural fertility; and will soon ren- 

 der it, as has already been done in some part.^ 

 of our country by the same means, an unpro- 

 ductive waste, unfit for cultivation. The rich 

 treasure, which our forefathers found upon 

 the surface, which had been accumulating 

 for centuries, has been squandered with a 

 prodigal hand. The apparently inexhausti- 

 ble deposite of vegetable food, which covered 

 tlie land, has, by an improvident use of the 

 plough, been given to the four winds of Hea- 

 ven, or washed away into the ocean. They 

 have ploughed, cross ploughed, and harrowed, 

 till their descendants have little else left; than 

 a mere caput morluum. 



I have known rich swells of land in Maine, 



which, thirty years ago, were covered with 

 thick forests, and what would have seemed 

 an exhaustless store of food for vegetation, 

 by means of the plough robbed of every 

 particle of vegetable sustenance, and now 

 absolutely abandoned by the occupant as 

 worthless. 



Strange as the assertion may seem, it is 

 nevertheless true, that farmers generally 

 plough too much. The poorer sub-soil, which 

 is turned up by the first ploughing, instead 

 of being kept upon the surface, till it has be- 

 come enriched by culture and exposure to 

 the air, is by cross ploughing immediately 

 turned back again into its cold and lifeless 

 bed ; and the light vegetable mould, instead 

 of being kept beneath, for the benefit of the 

 crop, is, by the same process of cross plough- 

 ing, brought again to the surface, and blown 

 away by winds, or washed away by rains. 



The manner of ploughing, and kind of 

 plough, which is used by mo.st farmers, have 

 lalso a tendency to diminish the natural or ac- 

 j quired fertility of the soil. With ploughs but 

 I little differing in construction from common 

 ; wedges, the ground is not turned over, but 

 I crowded into ridges, or the furrows lapped 

 [upon each other in such a manner as to ex- 

 ipose much of its best properties to waste. 

 jThe writer has ascertained from actual ex- 

 periment, that an acre of land yielding not 

 I more than a ton of hay to the acre, at the 

 usual season of ploughing greensward, say 

 I the tenth of May, contains more than twelve 

 1 tons of vegetable matter, consisting of the 

 I roots and tops of grass, and other vegetable 

 remains upon the surface. Such a method 

 of ploughing then as will be best calculated 

 { to secure for the benefit of the crop, this mass 

 I of enriching substance, the farmer should not 

 j hesitate to adopt. By completely inverting 

 ! the sward, and laying it as flat and smooth as 

 the nature of the ground will adrnit, and then 

 cultivating the crops without disturbing the 

 sod, with the application of a light dressing 

 of compost, land may not only be kept in 

 heart, but wonderfiiUy improved. With one 

 ploughing in this way, and spreading on one 

 top dressing of compost manure, of about 

 twenty cart loads to the acre, and mixing it 

 finely with the poor earth at the surface, I 

 have raised two crops of grain or roots, and 

 laid the land to grass. In the ordinary way 

 of cultivating, four ploughings, as many times 

 harrowing, and two dressings of mnnure, are 

 considered necessary. I have then saved 

 three ploughings, and as many harrowings, 

 one dressing of manure, and at the same time 

 have deepened, and permanently improved 

 the soil, and more than doubled my crops. 

 Ten years ago, I was upon the point of 

 abandoning some of rny old fields in despair. 

 They had been cultivated in the usual mode 



