144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



dimes, perhaps for a series of years. Yankees generally favor 

 the maxim of quick returns, although the profits are small. 



If green sward is to be turned up for winter wheat, it should 

 be ploughed in August with a good team and an expert plough- 

 man ; the soils should not be turned at a less depth than seven 

 and a half inches, and the furrows laid as flat as circumstances 

 will permit ; that is, the furrows should not lap upon each other, 

 as this would cause extra labor in making a smooth surface. 

 About twenty-five loads of compost manure incorporated with 

 seventy-five or one hundred bushels of leached ashes or its value 

 in some other fertilizer, will produce an amount of wheat equal 

 in value to seventy-five bushels of corn ; by turning the sod to 

 a proper depth, or about an inch deeper than at former plough- 

 ings, we have a surface soil of seven or eight inches ; the manure 

 and fertilizers produce a strong growth of the young plant in the 

 autumn after sowing ; and as the roots of all grains extend to 

 comparatively great depths below the surface, in the course of 

 the next summer they find a rich pasture ground in the sod 

 that is constantly decaying to feed upon ; besides, through the 

 influence of solar heat there is constantly a " sucking or draw- 

 ing up " of the nourishment of the decomposed vegetable 

 matter that encourages the growth of the young plant. 



We recommend comparatively deep ploughing in all cases, in 

 order to give a deeper and more friable soil for the small root- 

 lets to make their researches. It is noticeable in fields where 

 the stumps of trees have stood for a long time, and where we 

 should expect to see the stronger plants, we notice the very 

 opposite, and the cause may be attributed to inefficient plough- 

 ing. If spring wheat is to be sown "on stubble," we recom- 

 mend not only deep but frequent ploughing ; a thorough pul- 

 verization of the soil, and the last ploughing to be cut so fine 

 that the field may have the appearance of being harrowed. 



The writer of these remarks became satisfied of this operation 

 from being obliged to plough a field three times in conse- 

 quence of frequent rains in spring, where one ploughing in the 

 majority of cases would have been considered sufficient ; the 

 result was, when it became time to cultivate and hoe the field, 

 with a very little effort upon the handles of the horse hoe, the 

 teeth or cutters could be penetrated into the soil, to the depth of 

 the wood work, and the whole field was very similar " to an ash 



