140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tliey look at more than they do at the corn crop. We are all 

 aware that grass does not root very deep, and, as has been 

 remarked, corn does not root very deep. I think it does not 

 root so deep as the potato. If I was going to plough deep for 

 either crop, it would be for the potato. When I took the man- 

 agement of the farm, which was after my father's decease, the 

 word among farmers was, " plough deep." Older men than 

 myself said that ; it was a story of their telling, and without 

 their experience I thought it might do for me to follow their 

 counsel, and I put in the plough deep. I did not stop at five, 

 six or seven inches. Now wiiat was the result ? That ground 

 had been cultivated year after year continually, and probably 

 had not been ploughed more than five inches deep, and all the 

 goodness tliat had been carried there, except what had been car- 

 ried off in the crops, was near the surface ; and when I put in 

 the plough deep I turned that all under out of the way. What 

 sort of a crop could I get from that subsoil ? Where I ploughed 

 in that way it spoiled my field for years. The next time I had 

 to plough deep, so as to turn up w^iat I had ploughed down ; 

 then I was pretty careful not to plough deep after that, but let 

 my manure lie on the surface, and then I got good crops again. 

 But that is not the end of it. In ploughing to this depth, I not 

 only turned down to a considerable depth what was on top, but 

 I turned up a great many cobble stones. I lost my crop by 

 ploughing deep, and also made myself labor by turning up 

 stones. Now where was the advantage ? I consider that I sus- 

 tained a very severe loss in that manner of ploughing. Since 

 then I have not usiially cared to exceed five inches, and get my 

 manure worked in at that. 



I have ploughed in the fall. I think much depends upon the 

 ground you are to plough whether it is possible to plough in 

 the fall. If you have a tough, hard piece of ground that you 

 desire to break up, it is better to plough in the fall ; the frost 

 has considerable effect upon the hard soil, and I do not think 

 there is any very great loss by the wind blowing off the surface 

 soil. It will take away some, unless the ground is covered by 

 snoWf but I think the loss is not to be compared with the gain 

 that you make in letting the frost operate in pulverizing it. I 

 think there is great gain there. I think a light soil may as well 

 be ploughed in the spring as in the fall, and I think it is quite 



