182 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



Under the prevailing system the aim in many districts 

 is to provide a solid seed bed, with only about 2" of 

 the top soil, " the cover," well tilled. This system 

 will suffice for inter-cropping on the lightest soils, 

 but on heavy land, if the undersoil is left pretty well 

 undisturbed, the labour of cultivating between the 

 rows of corn when the crop is above-ground will be 

 all the greater. A firm seed bed for a corn crop is 

 always necessary under any conditions, but there is 

 no reason why the tilth cannot be both solid and 

 thorough at the same time. 



The writer attains this end by tilling the lea land 

 on the following plan. First of all, the land is 

 ploughed flat, that is to say, the furrows are turned 

 completely over instead of being turned up on edge 

 with a good arras or " feather," so dear to the old 

 ploughman's heart. The object, as is well known, 

 of this " arras " ploughing was to enable a good 

 cover to be obtained when the seed was broadcasted. 

 That is to say, the rectangular furrows, or trapezoidal 

 type of furrows — the latter known to ploughmen as 

 crushed box-shaped furrows — when set up on their 

 edge, easily harrowed down to a seed bed. The seed 

 was broadcasted before harrowing and fell into the 

 seams between the furrows and grew up in rows. 



There are, to-day even, many people who prefer 

 this style of ploughing, and who advocate broadcasting 

 instead of drilling. Life is much too short to argue with 

 such people. This style of work was necessary before 

 the digging plough, disc harrow, and the disc drill 

 were invented, but with these implements, a seed bed, 

 especially when the land is ploughed in summer and 

 autumn, can be tilled very fine and still be firm. In 

 fact, both implements are twice as effective when the 

 land is ploughed flat than when the furrows are set 

 up on their edge. 



