PLO 



POL 



341 



around the hill, or valley, from one 

 end to the other of the field and 

 about thirty yards apart. The steps 

 of the level on the ground, are 

 marked by a stroke of the hoe, and 

 immediately followed by a plough 

 to preserve the trace. A man or 

 a lad with the level, and two small 

 boys will do an acre of this in 

 an hour, and, when done it re- 

 mains forever. We generally le- 

 vel a field the year that it is put in- 

 to Indian corn, laying it in beds of 

 six feet wide, with a large water 

 furrow between the beds, until all 

 the fields have been once levelled. 

 The intermediate furrows are run 

 by the eye of the ploughman. 

 Governed by these guide lines the 

 inequalities of the declivity in the 

 hill will vary in places the distance 

 of the guide lines, and occasion 

 gores, which are thrown into short 

 beds. As in ploughing very steep 

 hills horizontally, the common 

 plough can scarcely throw the fur- 

 rows up hill, Col. Randolph has 

 contrived a very simple alteration 

 of the share, which throws the fur- 

 row down hill, both going and com- 

 ing. It is as if two shares were 

 welded together, and at a right an- 

 gle to each other. This turns on 

 its bar as on a pivot, so as to lay 

 either share horizontally ; then the 

 other, becoming vertical acts a? a 

 mould-board. This is done by the 

 ploughman, in an instant, by a sin- 

 gle motion of the hand at the end of 

 every furrow." 



A drawing and description of the 

 rafter level referred to in the pre- 

 ceding extract may be seen in the 

 " American Farmer,'''^ vgl. I. page 

 358. 



PLUM TREE, Prunus. The 

 Plum is generally supposed to be a 

 native of Asia, and the Damascene 

 to take its name from Damascus, a 

 city in Syria. 



Mr. Forsyth reckons more than 

 thirty varieties of this fruit, for 

 which see his treatise on Fruit 

 Trees. The soil in which they are 

 planted should be made two feet 

 and an half, or three feet deep, of 

 good light fresh loam. The trees 

 should not be headed down till they 

 begin to throw out fresh shoots. 

 Strong trees should be cut a foot 

 from the ground ; and those that 

 are weak, about half that length. 

 They should not be headed down 

 till they begin to bud, and then cut 

 as near the eye as possible, that 

 the young shoot may cover the cut. 

 They should not be headed at the 

 time of planting,as that practice oft- 

 en proves fatal to them. Plum 

 trees, as well as all other fruit 

 trees, should be pruned in the spring 

 instead of autumn or winter. 



IMr. Yates, a respectable farmer 

 of Petersham, Mass. informs that 

 the insects which occasion black 

 bunches on plum trees, are pre- 

 vented by digging around the roots 

 in the spring, and putting in half a 

 bushel of ashes, and covering them 

 with earth. Also, that the slug 

 worm is destroyed by putting tan- 

 ners' bark round pear trees 5 the 

 bark used was mostly hemlock,with 

 a little oak bark mixed with it. 



POLL EVIL, "an imposthume 

 on the poll of a horse. At first it 

 requires no other method of cure 

 than what is common to other 

 boils, and inflamed tumours. But 

 ! sometimes it degenerates to a sin- 



