218 OF PLOUGHING. 



row, not exceeding four or five inches in depth, is advi- 

 sable. * 



Deep ploughing is not to be recommended : 1 . Accord- 

 ing to some, when rich old leys are broken up for cropping, 

 though many respectable farmers are decidedly of opinion, 

 that old grass land should be ploughed with a strong furrow 

 at first, so as the harrowing process, upon which both the 

 crop and the condition of the ground afterwards materially 

 depend, maybe sufficiently executed. 2. When grass only 

 two or three years old is broken up, more especially where 

 it has been pastured with sheep ; a system to be particularly 

 attended to in ploughing land that is much infested with 

 annual weeds, as, from the extreme condensation of the soil, 

 by the trampling of the sheep, a furrow, even of a moderate 

 depth to appearance, will make the plough penetrate, below 

 the staple that had been cleared, by the culture given du- 

 ring the previous fallow ; from which circumstance, myriads 

 of the seeds of annuals are raised to the surface, where they 

 vegetate, and materially injure the crop cultivated, besides 

 replenishing the soil with a fresh supply of their own seeds. 

 3. When lime has been recently applied, as it has such a 

 tendency to sink from its own weight, and the moisture 

 which it imbibes. 4. W T here turnips have been eaten off 

 by sheep on the land where they grew. In all these cases, 

 from four to five inches deep will be found sufficient. And, 



* When Mr Wood commenced his operations on the Great Tevf 

 estate, in Oxfordshire, he began with a deep ploughing, though the 

 farmers in the neighbourhood assured him, that it would spoil the staple 

 of the lands ; but when they saw 54 Winchester bushels of oats, and 

 other crops in proportion, per acre, their ideas were soon altered, and 

 the valuator of the crops said, " That they must now all try to spoil the 

 staple of the land to get good crops." Their ploughing had formerly 

 been so shallow, that it hardly covered the dung, which they considered 

 an advantage. 



