PLO 



PLO 



33: 



That seed may be sown as early 

 as possible, many are led to make 

 the seed furrow before the ground 

 is sufficiently dry. If the crop 

 should be a little earlier, it will be 

 the poorer. It will be slower in 

 coming up ; more of the seeds will 

 fail ; the blade will be more slen- 

 der ; nor will it grow so fast as if 

 it were sowed later, when the 

 ground is warmer. Sometimes it 

 will not grow at all for a long time, 

 but become so stinted, that a crop 

 must be despaired of. No prac- 

 tice can be worse than to give the 

 seed furrow in stiff soils, before 

 the ground is sufficiently dried. 



Land that is low and flat, and 

 therefore apt to be too wet and 

 heavy, ought to be ploughed in 

 ridges. The ridges may have two, 

 three or four furrows on each side, 

 according as the ground is wetter 

 or drier. The wettest ground 

 should have the narrowest ridges ; 

 but they should never be narrower 

 than four furrows in a ridge. The 

 rows will be between four and five 

 feet apart, if one row of plants be 

 set on each ridge. But if there 

 be six or eight furrows in a ridge, 

 it may admit of two rows, one on 

 each side of the veering. 



After lying in ridges through 

 the winter, the ridges should be 

 thrown into the hollows by ano- 

 ther ploughing in the spring ; 

 which will bring it into good order 

 for seeding. 



Or if it should be too miry to be 

 ploughed in the spring, either Indi- 

 an corn or potatoes may be planted 

 on the ridges ; and what is want- 

 ing of the proper tillage, may be 

 made up after the ground is be- 

 43 



come drier, by frequent and deep 

 horse-hoeings. Good crops of 

 corn have been obtained in this 

 method, on land, whic!», with plain 

 ploughing, would have produced 

 next to nothing. 



Most of our clay soils, which lie 

 level, require this sort of culture; 

 for this more than any other soil is 

 liable to be injured by overmuch 

 wetness. And the drier it lies the 

 weaker will be the cohesion of its 

 parts. 



Some soils which lie gently slop- 

 ing are so wet as to need ridging. 

 It is not best to make the ridges 

 directly up and down the slope, 

 nor horizontally, but on a medium 

 between both. But where the 

 land will admit of it, the ridges 

 should lie north and south. It is 

 no bad practice to lay lands to 

 grass in ridges or beds. For too 

 much wetness is apt to hurt grass 

 lands, as well as lands for tillage, 

 whether they are used for mowing 

 or pasturage. In the former, the 

 grass will be too sour to make 

 a good hay ; in the latter, not only 

 the grass will be bad, but the soil 

 so soft as not well to bear the tread 

 of cattle, I have found that not 

 only better grass, but a greater 

 quantity, will be produced in this 

 method. Nor will the soil so soon 

 become hard and bound- 



Nor is it a bad practice to split 

 the hills with the light plough in 

 autumn, after a crop of corn j 

 even though the ground be not 

 seeded till the following spring. 

 One side of a row of hills is plough- 

 ed off with one furrow, and the 

 other side ploughed off the contra- 

 ry way by another furrow, so as to 



