POTATO CULTURE. 201 



VISIT TO WILBUR FENN'S, NO. 1. 



At Tallmadge I called on my relative, Mr. Wilbur Fenn. 

 He was out plowing a piece of ground just 100 rods long ; 

 and the minute Hooked down the furrow he had just turned, 

 I uttered an exclamation of surprise and delight. Do you 

 know why V This hundred-rod furrow was about as straight 

 as you could draw a string. It was of even, regular depth 

 its whole length, and the fine soft loam rolled over exactly 

 the same way from one end of the furrow to the other. In 

 fact, the field was almost ready to plant just as the plow 

 left it. My cousin, young Femrs father, explained to me 

 that one reason why his son did so nice a job just then, was 

 that he was teaching his hired man to plow straight. Some 

 of you may say that a crooked furrow would give just as 

 good a crop as a straight one. Well, 1 suppose it might 

 under some circumstances ; but look here, my friend. The 

 man who plows a straight furrow like that does every thing 

 else accordingly, in making his preparations for a crop. The 

 ground will be so well fitted, and the -planting so accurate, 

 that a good hill of corn will grow on every foot of the soil, 

 where there is room for a hill. There will not be too many 

 stalks in a hill nor too few ; and there will not be any good 

 spots in the field, and poor spots. 



Young Fenn is in Terry's neighborhood, and he has 

 caught on to the ideas of good farming that have been so 

 vehemently taught. Let me tell you something about how 

 hard be has worked to get his ground so he could plow such 

 a furrow. First, all the trees and stumps were disposed of; 

 then the rocks and stones. Why, this same ground has been 

 farmed for perhaps fifty years ; and when young Fenn got 

 hold of it he commenced getting out every stump and stone 

 that would make the plow dodge. In one place, after dig- 

 ging out a stone that broke his plow-point, he found six old 

 broken plow-points in the same spot. His predecessors had 

 broken their plow-points one after another, and contented 

 themselves with putting in a new one and going ahead and 

 leaving the cause to do the same thing again, year after year. 

 Of course, the ground is underdrained ; but even then I 

 could not comprehend how that soil should turn over so 

 beautifully soft and even and fine ; but he explained it by 

 saying that the field was fitted for oats when that sixty- 

 hour rain came ; but the water settled it down so solid and 

 compact that he decided he would not undertake to get 



