WAY-SIDE HINTS 



PLOUGHING AND DRILLED CROPS 



One of the most striking of those contrasts 

 which arrest the attention of an intelhgent 

 agricultural observer, between the tillage of 

 English fields and those of New England, as 

 well as of America generally, is in the matter 

 of plowing. In England, bad plowing is rare ; 

 in New England, good plowing is even rarer. 

 Something is to be allowed, of course, for the 

 irregular and rocky surface of new lands, but 

 even upon the best meadow bottoms along 

 our river courses, a clean, straight furrow, 

 well turned, so as to offer the largest possible 

 amount of friable mould for a seed-bed, is a 

 sight so unusual, that in the month of spring 

 travel we might count the number on our 

 fingers. I go still farther, and say — though 

 doubtless offending the patriotic susceptibili- 

 ties of a great many — that not one American 

 farmer in twenty knows what really good 

 plowing is. Over and over, the wiseacres at 

 the county fairs give their first premiums to 

 the man who, by a little deft handling of the 

 plow, can turn a flat furrow, and who wins 

 his honors by his capacity to hide every 

 vestige of the stubble, and to leave an utterly 



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