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PLU 



PLO 



land that is level, or gently sloping, 

 is oftentimes very proper. Land 

 in general should be ploughed one 

 way and the other alternately, that 

 it nnay be the more thoroughly 

 pulverized and mixed ; that is, 

 when the shape of the ground and 

 the dimensions of a lot admit of 

 it. 



Green sward ground, that is 

 hroken up in the fall is usually 

 cross-ploughed in the spring fol- 

 lowing. But this should not be 

 done without caution. For if the 

 turf be not considerably rotted, 

 cross-ploughing will only drive it 

 into heaps, instead of cutting it to 

 pieces : Neither will the harrow 

 reduce the turf to powder. In 

 this case it will be best to omit the 

 cross-ploughing : And after a hea- 

 vy harrowing lengthwise of the 

 furrows, seed the land with pease, 

 potatoes, maize, or any thing that 

 will do well with such culture. 



Some plough green sward in the 

 spring and seed it without delay. 

 It sometimes does well for maize, 

 oats, and flax,' if well dunged ; or 

 for pease and potatoes without 

 much dunging. Potatoes seem to 

 do better than any thing else. But 

 the holes must be made quite 

 through the furrows, whether 

 dunged or not. As this crop re- 

 quires the greatest part of its 

 nourishment in the latter part of 

 summer, about that time the turf 

 comes to be in i(s best state for 

 yielding nourishment to plants. 



For a crop of winter wheat the 

 tillage ground should be ploughed 

 in the spring, again in June, and 

 lastly just before sowing. What- 

 ever manure be put on, it should 



be just before the last ploughing, 

 and ploughed in immediately. If 

 the grain be ploughed in with a 

 shoal furrow, it will not be so apt 

 to be killed by the winter. The 

 roots will lie deeper than those of 

 harrowed grain ; and it will the 

 better bear drought in the follow- 

 ing summer, if that should happen. 



For other seeding in general, or 

 for whatever is planted or sown in 

 the spring, on what we call old 

 ground, it should be ploughed near 

 the time of seeding, although it 

 were ploughed in the fall ; and the 

 nearer to the time of seeding the 

 better. The seeds will be the 

 better supplied with moisture to 

 make them vegetate ; and the crop 

 will have the better chance of be- 

 ing able to outgrow and stifle the 

 weeds, and have the benefit of a 

 looser soil, during the whole of its 

 growth. These autumnal plough- 

 ings, I have found to be greatly 

 advantageous, especially in clays, 

 and in stiff loams. 



Many, to save labour, plough 

 their land so shallow for sowing, 

 as scarcely to take up the roots of 

 the vveeds. Men of common un- 

 derstanding, I should suppose, 

 need not be told that this is bad 

 husbandry : For it may rationally 

 be expected that there will be a 

 larger crop of weeds, than if it had 

 not been ploughed at all ; and that 

 the roots of the plants will not 

 have suflicient room to extend 

 themselves. Ploughing the ground 

 in autumn will have a tendency to 

 prevent this most absurd conduct 

 in the spring, which many go into 

 that they may favour their teams 

 in a faint season. 



