than a similar soil undrained or shallow plowed. It is nevertheless a fact ; and more 

 and more are convinced of it each year, as they se'e the good effects produced. And a.s 

 we believe that all which is necessary to cause a farmer to change his mode of culture, 

 is to convince him he is in error, and to show him a better way for him to adopt, we 

 think there can be no doubt that the next twenty years will witness a o-roat change in 

 our system of agriculture, and under-draining and deep plowing will be the foundation 

 of the much needed improvement. 



We have been led to these remarks, by reading an article in the Rural New Yorker 

 of September 9, from the pen of Linus Cone, Esq., of Troy, Oakland county, Mich., in 

 which, after saying that the crops have been most seriously injured by drouth this sea- 

 son, he gives the following most important and interesting statement : 



" As an instance to show what deep cultivation will do in time of severe drouth, I will mention a 

 field of ahout six and a_ half acres, mostly high, dry, undulating, clayey land, which has been in grain 

 most of the thue since it was cleared — over twenty years. Five years since, it was manured with 

 about tliirty loads of coarse barn-yard manure to the acre, and planted to corn for two seasons, then 

 barley and oats one season, wheat next, and seeded with eight or ten bushels of clover chaff and six 

 quarts of timothy to the acre. For the barley and wheat crops it was subsoiled and made fine and 

 mellow to the depth of twenty inches. This season it was in meadow, and a heavier growth of grass 

 I never saw ; thirty-three loads of hay were taken from it, and since it was cut the pasture has been 

 fresh and good. Here was probably over three tons of hay per acre, while on other land in this 

 vicinity, of similar soil, but which had been 8ubject.<^d to ahallow tillage, the grass was light — in 

 many ca-ses hardly worth cutting. 



" I might mention other instances to show the beneficial effect that deep cultivation has upon 

 growing crops, but it is not necessary — it would not probably do any good even if such a statement 

 should be made to every farmer in our land. It is so much easier to gnunble about the weather 

 than it is to put in the plow, that nearly all prefer the latter course." 



The fall is the most convenient time for subsoil plowing and underd raining. 



m 



THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR COMMON SHEEP. 



In the improvement of sheep, as well as of other animals, the male is considered of more 

 importance that the female, and more care is therefore necessary in selecting one ; yet, 

 for the "production of perfect animals, it is absolutely essential that both male and female 

 be well bred ; and if not individually perfect in every point, the conformation of the two 

 should be such as when combined would form a perfect creature. So that, in endeavor- 

 ing to improve our common flocks of sheep, we should not only get good, first rate 

 bucks, but should select out from the flock the ewes of the best age and make, to put 

 witn nun ; and in choosing them, should have an eye to those particular points we wish 

 to have well developed in the lambs. In this way much may be done to improve our 

 ordinary breeds of sheep, without much outlay in purchasing improved stock. A know- 

 ledge of the principles of breeding, and care in the selection and manao-ement of the 

 ewes IVom wluch we intend to breed, and the choice of a buck adapted to counteract 

 any deficiencies in the ewes, will, if judiciously persevered in for a few years, gi-eatly 

 improve any flock of sheep. 



Farmers often procure a buck which, however useful he might be for other flocks, is 

 altogether unsuitable for the flock he is intended to serve. Again, in a large flock of 

 ordinary sheep there are often two or more kinds of ewes with characteristics entirely 

 dift'erent from each other : hence a buck that might be first rate for the one, and calcu- 

 lated to improve the breed, would be altogether ill adapted for the other, and would 

 propagate imperfections rather than neutralize them ; yet how common is it to let the 

 whole flock run together, and have the indiscriminate use of the same bucks. Instead 

 of this careless, heedless, and profitless way of breeding, the flock should at this time be 



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