232 Fall ploughing ', &c. 



conclude, that an able man, with a few boys, need not 

 despair of success in ridding his field of grubs by the 

 means mentioned ; if he will not believe in, and take any 

 other. My tenant found the most proper times to secure 

 his prey, were before and at day break, and in the even- 

 ing ; as the grubs always retire from the sun. Yet he 

 did not intermit his pursuit through most of the day.* 



Some of my neighbours have derived benefit by ma- 

 king deep holes, with a pointed stick, near the corn plants ; 

 in which one neighbour trapped an inconceivable num- 

 ber of grubs. 



In an agricultural society in my neighbourhood, it is 

 a practice for the members, respectively, to state such 

 facts as have come to their knowledge, on their own and 

 other farms ; they being intelligent practical farmers. At 

 a late meeting, which I attended, facts, pro and con, on 

 the subject of Jail ploughing, to prevent injuries from 

 grubs, and for other valuable purposes, were candidly 

 stated. In some instances, fall ploughing had not been 

 successful to the extent usually experienced ; but in none- 

 had it entirely failed. The balance of facts was com- 

 pletely favourable ; not only as it regarded the grub, but 

 in other beneficial effects on crops. Some had fall plough- 

 ed part of a field, in preparation for a spring crop of oats 

 or barley ; and left another part to be ploughed in the 

 spring. The oat crop far exceeds, on the fall ploughed 

 part, that ploughed in the spring. Lime is generally 

 used by all the members. The facts as they are verbal- 

 ly stated, are recorded by the secretary, and a great num- 



* We had fifty bushels of shelled corn to the acre ; a good crop 

 is any year, on a clover sod, without dung. 



