64 Our Farming. 



to the field, and then we found the stone in the hole all right. The 

 rain softened its bed, so it slid in. There were a good many small 

 bowlders in my land just under the surface. The plow would 

 strike them. As soon as I could afford it to have help, I had an 

 old boot tied to my plow handle, full of little sticks about a foot 

 long, and when I came to a stone of this kind that the plow did 

 not bring up, I put a stake right over it and went on. My man 

 followed with spade and bar, and either took it out or sunk it, 

 according to size. The little stones were picked up. Oh ! how 

 many, many loads of them ! This was a crop that for a time 

 never failed on some of our land. We picked up everything down 

 to the size of an egg or even less. When we would get the top 

 clean, then we would plow deeper next time to deepen our soil, 

 which had been worked very shallow before we came here, and 

 then have another crop of stones. And we have done this several 

 times. No wonder a young friend, writing me about getting rid 

 of stones the other day, asks the question whether stones grow ! I 

 guess not, but they probably work up some by frost and certainly 

 do by deeper plowing. 



The stones I picked up were drawn into the permanent 

 pasture and put in piles on waste land. A neighbor, S- P. 

 Thompson, dumped his over a bank and then scraped earth over 

 them. This is an excellent way where the lay of the land is right 

 for it. They are put out of sight and out of the way, once for all. 

 If you ever have any notion of using a subsoil plow you must 

 sink your bowlders deeper than just below where the common 

 plow will run. I thought when I buried mine that they were 

 out of my way forever, and then I got the subsoiling craze and 

 came up all standing against those buried pets now and then. 

 One must do lots of thinking ahead to get everything just right. 

 I would advise that you do your tile draining before burying hard- 

 heads, or they may come in your way. Of course, one can dig 

 and lay around them, but it causes extra trouble. I am in the 

 habit of picking up small stones when we are rolling and draw- 

 ing them off on the roller. We have had a large one that would 

 hold a ton. I think, perhaps, these small stones would be an 

 advantage to the soil and crop, but then we cannot use the finest 

 implements among stones to advantage, nor can we go along at a 

 rapid pace without danger of breakage. Such tools as the potato 

 digger, Thomas harrow and Breed's weeder cannot be used to 

 the best advantage, except on clean land. Nor can one do a nice 

 job of plowing among stones. You may back up all you please, 

 but if the plow is thrown out you cannot do as perfect plowing. 

 Although not quite so important, perhaps, as getting out stumps 

 and trees on our farm, it lies in the same line, and we never stopped 

 our efforts until we got our land clean and free from every ob- 

 struction, above ground or in it, that would hinder the fastest 

 work that is practicable and the best work with the finest tools in 



