NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



165 



vation of the ground with his other pursuit, will 

 1)0 the stronger man for it, and may ultimately at- 

 tain quite as desirable a condition as if he had ex- 

 clusively devoted mind and body to his profession. 

 The farmer who attends to the cultivation of his 

 mind, in connection with that of his soil, is much 

 better fitted to farm it properly and profitably, 

 than if he Avere merely a manual digger. 



I come now to a direct practical answer to your 

 question — "In what does the secret consist of find- 

 ing any real substantial pleasure in the operations 

 of farming ?" Among other things you name "the 

 monotonous business of holding the plow from 

 early in the morning to late in the evening." As 

 too commonly conducted, I grant that plowing is 

 not a particularly agreeable business, and that you 

 have described it quite tersely. Too many plow- 

 men, having little or no thought about the true 

 phi] isopMcal principles of their business, are more 

 anxious to get over the greatest possible breadth 

 of land in a day, than to do proper and the best 

 work. They cut their furrows too shallow, and as 

 wide as, or wider than the plow can possibly turn 

 them, and what portion can not be got over with 

 the plow aided by the foot of the plowman, rolls 

 back into its bed again, and the next time round 

 its "grass side up" is put out of sight by the "cut 

 and cover" operation, making a high ridge of earth 

 with a deep hole beside it. The furrows are also 

 very crookedly cut, and therefore do not match 

 together at all well. The plowman twists and 

 turns himself in all manner of shapes, is vexed 

 with his plow, scolds at and whips his team 

 furiously, labors and tugs ' and sweats away, 

 "from early in the morning to late in the evening," 

 and can show you as big and as mean a day's work 

 as you could wish to see, with hardly a rod square 

 of passably good work in the whole piece. I 

 would not allow such a workman to plow a day 

 forme, if he would do the work for nothing, and 

 pay ten dollars for the privilege. But if properly 

 conducted, say for ten hours in a day, which is all 

 a merciful man will require of his animals of 

 draught, however he may be disposed as to him- 

 self, plowing is one of the finest and most exhila- 

 rating employments in all the world. 



Did you ever investigate the accurate philosophy 

 of the plow and of plowing 1 Take a highly im- 

 proved modern plow and study it. Look at it 

 as a whole implement, and at its several parts, 

 and reflect what a world of profound study it has 

 cost to produce that same implement. What high 

 mechanical principles it involves, and how beauti- 

 fully do they combine together to produce an ex- 

 act and most valuable result. There is the mould- 

 board alone, although an exact mathematical 

 combination, yet it is a problem for you, (I 

 speak advisedly,) which, if you have not solved it, 

 its solution will give you a pretty sharp brush, 

 with all your mathematics. Then too a combina- 

 tion of mathematics, a little varied to suit each 

 case, will give you the best form of mouldboard 

 for sandy and gravelly soils, for clay, and heavy 

 moist soils generally, and for best working stubble 

 land. The plow best adapted to sandy, and 

 generally light, dry soils, will lay flat furrows, ac- 

 curately shut in beside each other, thus prevent- 

 ing a too great natural tendency to evaporation, 

 incident to such soils. Your mathematics will 

 show you that a coulter set bevelling to the land, 

 an inclined landside to the . plow, and a concave- 



lined mouldboard, all contribute to facilitate the 

 laving of Hat furrows, and that it would be diffi- 

 cult to drop the edges down accurately beside 

 each other without these several provisions. The 

 plow best adapted to clay and other heavy or 

 moist soils, cuts rectangular furrows and lays 

 them at an inclination of 45° to the horizon. Your 

 mathematics will show you that this is the best 

 position for the furrows of such soils to be placed 

 in. It can be undeniably demonstrated that none 

 but rectangular furrows, whose depth is to their 

 width as two is to three, can be laid at an inclination 

 of 45°; that rectangular furrows, whose depth is 

 equal to two-thirds their width, and which are 

 laid at an inclination of 45°, present, in their 

 projecting angles, a greater surface of soil to the 

 ameliorating influences of the atmosphere, and 

 greater cubical contents of soil for the harrow to 

 operate on in raising a deep fine tilth, or seed-lied, 

 and permit underneath them a freer circulation of 

 air, and passage from the surface of superfluous 

 moisture, than furrows of any other form or pro- 

 portions that are practicable to be turned. The 

 plow in the very best manner adapted to the 

 working of stubble lands, will be higher in the 

 beam to enable it to pass obstructions, and short- 

 er in the turn of its mouldboard, than either of 

 the preceding, will have a greater depth of iron in 

 the back parts of the mouldboard, which will 

 tend to throw its loose stubble furrow all over to 

 an inverted position, and leave a perfectly clean 

 channel behind it f jr the reception of the next 

 furrow. Thus you see there is quite a philosophy 

 in plows and in plowing, — which the intellectual 

 farmer is bound to understand. 



However dull and monotonous the business of 

 plowing may be to you, it is not at all so to me. 

 Starting my team a-field of a bright spring's 

 morning, with my plow all bright and clean from 

 its winter quarters, I feel as honest a pride and 

 pleasure at the thought of my occupation as I ever 

 do when engaging in any employment. I strike 

 out my Lmds with a furrow as straight as an air 

 line. After this is accomplished, I guage my plow 

 to cut deep furrows, and as narrow as is possibly 

 compatible with the depth, and then take them 

 off the land of uniformly exact depth and width. 

 never allowing a crooked furrow to be seen in my 

 plowing. To me it is very exhilarating to see 

 the furrows roll off my polished mouldboard, and 

 lay beside each other with as accurate a finish as 

 though they had been jointed by a carpenter's tools, 

 and to think, as my eye surveys the smoking soil 

 thus prepared, how mother earth always delights 

 in bountifully rewarding the careful husbandman, 

 — that she invites a liberal, intelligent and accu- 

 rate cultivation, by returning as compensation a 

 greatly increased crop. I say to myself that I am 

 one of the number engaged iu an operation with- 

 out which man would not have bread, civilization 

 could not advance or be sustained, and which was 

 one of the fundamental operations early contribut- 

 ing to elevate man from the barbarous state, and 

 fix him in the abodes of civilization. I remember 

 that the plow has been regarded with a sort of 

 sacredness by men in every age, that even far 

 back — 



"In ancient times, the sacred plow employed 

 The kings, and awful fathers of mankind ;" 



and that now, it employs many of earth's choicest 

 spirits. This occupation brings me fine health, 



