WAY-SIDE HINTS 



use a hoe or a pitch-fork is supposed to be a 

 competent tailsman for the plow. The result 

 is— very much bad work. And I would re- 

 spectfully suggest as a subject to which the 

 newly inaugurated Agricultural Colleges may 

 fitly turn a portion of their attention, the 

 indoctrination of a certain number of ambi- 

 tious young farmers (every fall time) into the 

 merits of good plowing. It is not indeed to be 

 expected that the purveyors of this Congres- 

 sional agricultural charity would, in most in- 

 stances, be capable personally of giving the 

 requisite instruction; but they might avail 

 themselves of the offices of here and there a 

 Scotch farmer who would be competent to 

 fulfil the trust, and there are always young 

 Americans willing to learn. 



Another noticeable feature in European 

 field management, which contrasts strongly 

 with much of our helter skelter planting, is 

 the almost universal adoption of the drill 

 system in the culture of all hoed crops, by 

 virtue of which fertilizing material is applied 

 directly to the plants, and the same distributed 

 — by a transverse plowing the succeeding sea- 

 son — for the benefit of the cereal which comes 

 next in rotation. It may be questionable if 

 our corn crop (maize) will not succeed best 



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