186 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



[No. 3 



bottom of every farrow is but a sacce.'=!f5ion of long 

 shallow depressions, separated by slight bars of 

 fjround. more elevated naturally, or lefi so by more 

 shallow cutting of the ploujjh in such spots. Of 

 course, all these depressions, when filled by rain, 

 are so many little ponds; and even if not more 

 than an inch deep, the water must stand in every 

 one until evaporated, or slowly sucked up by the 

 already over-gorcred soil. As the soil of the 

 black land is generally loo deep to be cut through 

 by the ploughing, and is moreover very absorbent, 

 the disappearance of this water there must be 

 more generally caused by absorption than by 

 evaporation. The slight and numerous inequali- 

 ties of depth, relt^rred to, are such as it is impossi- 

 ble to avoid leaving on the most level land, in 

 ploughing, and of which the depressions are too 

 small and too numerous to be cut through and re- 

 lieved by cross-drains, or grips, as they "are called 

 elsewhere. These cross-drains are now always 

 made, and serve well, wherever there is any con- 

 siderable natural depression (say even as little as 

 4 inches) stretching across the direction of the 

 beds. But serviceable and well constructed as 

 these may be, the number necessary to be made, 

 and their being filled, and requiring opening, at 

 every tillage |)rocess, are also serious difficulties. 

 And when these cross-drains are caught, not pro- 

 perly opened, by heavy rain, the evil is so much 

 the greater than in the case of alleys, because one 

 of these grips is designed to receive, and dis- 

 charge into ditches, the water from hundreds of 

 beds. The grips are, and for convenience ousht 

 to be, but very little lower than the bottoms of the 

 water-furrows; and therefore both are necessarily 

 bottomed on the absorbent soil of the black land. 



When there is more careless and slovenly 

 ploughing, and surface-draining, all these objec- 

 tions are still greater. The beds under wheat 

 have frequently an average thoush unequal width 

 of a foot or more in the water-furrow, on which 

 the plants have been entirely killed bv standing 

 water; the less, though still" hiirhlv injurious, ef^ 

 fects of which must have extended higher upon 

 such narrow and necessarily low beds. ^On some 

 land, the wheat plants stood throuffhout the fur- 

 rows, and this was made a claim of merit in the 

 system, and in the execution. But if the plants of 

 wheat live in so low a place, through winter, 

 as on the bottoms of the water-furrows, I infer 

 either that the plants, though living, cannot be 

 healthy and productive; or if productive, that the 

 soil was, in fact, so dry as not to need a drain eve- 

 ry five feet to keep it well drained. Upon the 

 best executed bedding, surely the bottoms of the 

 water-furrows must be more exposed to wet than 

 would be the whole surface, if there were no 

 water-furrows. 



But, even on the plan of narrow beds, I do not 

 consider it better that the whole alley should bear 

 plants. I would prefer the entire absence of thein 

 on a narrow, but clean furrow, as best for both 

 drainage and for immediate product. 



Now for the proposed substitute. 



Supposing the land to be already laid off accu- 

 rately in five-feel beds, five of these should be 

 thrown together, by a deep ploughing, so as to 

 form beds of twenty-five feet. It should be done 

 by beginning at, and lapping two furrow-slices on 

 the crown of the middle bed of the five, and then 

 continuing to plough " in-and-in" until the plough 



at some place touches the wafer-furrow in which 

 the new one is to be left. Then the plough 

 should stop, at the end of that furrow, and begin 

 upon the intended crown of the next wide bed, 

 and continue it in like manner until the line ibr a 

 new water-furrow is again touched somewhere. 

 The narrow strip left between the two new beds 

 should then be ploughed deeply, "out-and-out," 

 throwing the slices alternately to each bed, and 

 closing with a furrow which will be easily sunk 

 full six inches lower than the old alley in the same 

 place. Still the new bed would be badly shaped, 

 owing to the four closed old water-furrows not be- 

 ing enough filled; and moreover it Avould be gene- 

 rally too low, compared to its width. Hence a 

 second ploughing would be necessary immediate- 

 ly, or before any heavy rain. The first furrows 

 of" this should be run as before, except that instead 

 of meeting on the crowns of" the beds, (where 

 there would be already a list sufficiently high,) a 

 width of about two lijei on the crowns might be 

 omitted, and the first slices thrown no closer than 

 to the edges of that strip. When the plough 

 3gain reaches the water-furrow, it will have, by 

 the gathering of so wide a bed, more room than 

 before, to sink the new water-furrow, deeper, and 

 also lo clean it out well. These two ploughings, 

 if" well executed, and followed by a harrowing, 

 would leave the surface of the bed tolerably well 

 graduated, and gently sloping from the crown to 

 shoulder; and the water-furrows at least 9 inches 

 deeper than the old ones; and not only deeper, but 

 generally sunk into the clay sub-soil, so as to con- 

 vey the water off through a close and impervious 

 pipe, as it may be called, instead of over open and 

 loose absorbent soil. The mere consideration of 

 the difference between the wide and the narrow 

 beds, and the five small and shallow draining fur- 

 rows of the former, and the broad and deep one of 

 the latter, would show that the latter is better for 

 drainage. Every such water-furrow is, in fact, a 

 ditch, and a capacious and excellent one; but 

 which is made and kept open by the plough, and 

 furnishes no impediment to the crossing of ani- 

 mals, or of half"-loaded carls. The fully loaded 

 should be drawn along the bed, and would have 

 a far better road than on narrow beds. 



Grips or cross-drains would still be needed, but 

 not in half the present number; because the now 

 deeper water-furrows would keep any shallow 

 standing water fully nine inches lower than for- 

 merly, and therefore less, if at all hurtf"ul. But 

 wherever necessary to be made, the grips should 

 now be increased in depth, of course, in propor- 

 tion to the new water-furrows, f"rom which they 

 are to draw the excess of water. 



The wide beds are never to be reversed entire- 

 ly ; that is, the water-furrow must always be kept 

 in the same place, and made as deep, and as 

 clean, as ploughing can effect. For one or two 

 crops, or ploughings, after the first, it may be best 

 to throw the slices still towards the crown of the 

 bed, so as to raise it higher. But if so continued, 

 the bed would soon become too high, and the top 

 either too round, or angular. This is easy to pre- 

 vent. If it is desired to depress the crown of the 

 bed, but yet to raise the sides midway between 

 the crowns and water-furrows, let the middle and 

 higher strips of the bed be ploughed " out-and- 

 out,'' like a " land " in common fiush ploughing, 

 and without caring to preserve any precise outlines. 



