NEW 



NEW 



285 



a horse-plough, excepting in the 

 manner of connecting it to the 

 horse that draws it. With this 

 plough, passing it within three or 

 four inches of tiie rows, the earth 

 is turned from the rows into the 

 intervals or alleys, so that tire fur- 

 rows meet each other, and form a 

 sharp ridge. This is the first hoe- 

 ing, and is performed late in au- 

 tumn, just before winter. It lays 

 the young plants so dry, that it is 

 thought they are in no danger of 

 being killed by the frosts of win- 

 ter. But some improvers on this 

 system have recommended omit- 

 ting one of these furrows, or if 

 both be ploughed, to turn back 

 one of them towards the row be- 

 fore the hard frosts of winter ; lest 

 the ridges should be too much in 

 danger of being washed away by 

 rains, and the young plants remov- 

 ed. This seems to be a real im- 

 provement upon Mr. Tull's me- 

 thod. 



Early in the following spring 

 (they say in March, but it must be 

 April in this country) the earth is 

 turned toward the rows ; then in 

 May, from them ; and lastly, in 

 June, it is turned back to the rows, 

 and partly against the stems, when 

 the grain is just out of blossom ; 

 which last ploughing is thought to 

 do more service than any other, 

 as it greatly helps to fill out the 

 grain ; and must not, therefore, on 

 any account, be omitted. 



Each of the ploughings must be 

 very deep, so as to keep the ground 

 very loose and open. But care 

 must be also taken to uncover 

 plants that chance to be buried by 



the plough ; to weed the grain 

 once or twice in the rows, and to 

 stir the earth between the rows, 

 with a prong-hoe or hand-hoe, as 

 often as the intervals are ploughed, 

 or horse-hoed. 



The advantages of this method 

 of culture are said to be these : 

 That indiflferent land will produce 

 a good crop, which would produce 

 little or nothing in the old way ; 

 that a good crop of wheat may be 

 raised each year from the same 

 piece of ground, without impover- 

 ishing the soil, as the intervals are 

 always followed ; that there is no 

 need of manuring the land at all, 

 as the extraordinary tillage will 

 answer the same end as manure, 

 and at less expense ; that there 

 will be no crop missed or prevent- 

 ed by a year of fallow, which must 

 take place every second year in 

 the old way of cultivating wheat, 

 to prevent exhausting the soil; 

 that the crops will be larger, bet- 

 ter and fuller grain by far, and en- 

 tirely free from the seeds of 

 weeds. 



The editors of the last edition 

 of Mr. TulPs horse-hoeing Hus- 

 bandry, by a computation of the 

 expense and profit of the old hus- 

 bandry and the new, and compar- 

 ing the accounts, make the clear 

 profit of the latter appear to be 

 more than double to that of the 

 former. This may be seen at 

 large in the Complete Farmer, un- 

 der the article Husbandry. Other 

 ingenious writers in Great Britain, 

 since have written in confirmation 

 of this opinion. See Encyclopedia^ 

 article Agriculture. 



