568 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Dec 



tion vas asked if the robins preferred the cher- 

 ries before they were ripe. It was answered by 

 remarking that as cherries became more abund- 

 ant, their depredations were spread over a wider 

 surface. This was hardly a sufficient explanation. 

 The problem was soon solved, however, by dis- 

 covering multitudes of robins in the blueberry 

 pastures, where the berries had ripened in great 

 abundance, and were preferred to cherries, by 

 the robins. I am persuaded that a tree full of 

 the finest of cherries in the middle of a blueber- 

 ry pasture, would remain almost untouched. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FALIi PLOWING. 



The month of November is a favorable time 

 for plowing grass lands that are to be planted 

 the following spring. The weather now is cool 

 and bracing, and favorable for the team, and 

 there is generally leisure for doing the work. 

 Also, the plowing being now executed, there is 

 more time left in spring for other necessary op- 

 erations. 



Late fall plowing generally disposes of the cut 

 worm, and the common grub worm, and also of 

 their eggs, leaving, in this respect, a clean field 

 for the next year's crop of corn or potatoes, I 

 have found, by repeated experience, that it is 

 unsafe for me to plant corn on green-sward 

 plowed in spring. Either the cut worm or the 

 grub, and sometimes both, will be pretty sure to 

 damage the crop, in two out of three cases. But 

 by late fall plowing they are cleared out of the 

 land, and very few, if any, hills of corn are found 

 missing the following season. My team is now 

 breaking up a piece of green sward nine to ten 

 inches deep, that has been much infested with 

 grubs this season, so that in some places the grass 

 is completely killed out. Quantities of the grubs 

 are turned up to the surface in plowing, and 

 often one may take up a handful of minute eggs, 

 in a place, in the upturned furrows. Now this 

 late and deep plowing quite disturbs the winter 

 arrangements of the worms. If the land had 

 been left unplowed, and covered with the grass 

 sward, and, perhaps, through the winter, covered 

 with snow, it would not have frozen very deep — 

 perhaps not more than three to six inches deep, 

 and that not permanently for the winter. But 

 being plowed, the land will freeze solid, in one 

 cold night, as deep as the furrows, certainly, and 

 probably before mid-winter it will be frozen from 

 one to two feet deep, remaining so till spring. 



By turning the sod over in November, nothing 

 green starts up, and the frosts of winter, immedi- 

 ately following, mostly kill the grass roots, so that 

 the labor of planting and weeding the succeeding 

 crop is less than after spring plowing. The frost 

 also so divides and crumbles the plowed land that 

 on harrowing in the spring the soil is easily re- 

 duced to a fine deep tilth. 



In breaking up grass land in the fall, it is well 

 to plow deep — from eight to ten or twelve inches, 

 according to the quality of the land — so that 

 when the manure is spread in spring, there may 

 be enough loose earth on top, in which to bury 

 the manure well, without disturbing the sod un- 

 derneath. If the manure is unfermented, it may, 

 by using a light plow, be covered from three to 

 five inches deep, according to the depth of the 



fall plowing. This suits me better than it would 

 to bury the manure down deep, under the sod, 

 where it lies too inactive and powerless for the 

 crop of corn. If the manure to be applied is fine 

 compost, thfcn it can be worked into the land suf- 

 ficiently with a harrow or an ox cultivator. 



The action of frost, snow, sun and rain, on 

 the upturned subsoil, is highly beneficial to it, 

 and improves the productive power of the 

 land. 



Land that has been planted with hoed crops 

 this season, and is to be sown with grain and 

 grass seeds next spring, may be plowed this 

 month, provided it lies tolerably warm and dry, 

 and is not subject to overflow, or undue wetness, 

 during winter and early spring. By plowing it 

 now, it will not need ploAving again, but will be 

 all ready to receive the grain and grass seeds at 

 the first opening of spring work, and thus the 

 seeds can be got in a week or ten days earlier 

 than if the land were not plowed till spring. 

 This will most likely be favorable for the crop of 

 grain, and for a good catch of grass. If the land 

 to be plowed is corn-stubble, it will be well to 

 harrow it first, which will open and level down 

 the corn hills, and the stubble will be the better 

 turned under in plowing, and the plowed land 

 have a smoother surface for seeding. The corn 

 stubs, lying beneath the furrow through the win- 

 ter, will not be likely to come to the surface to 

 clog the harrow at seeding time, and thus the 

 field being clean, the seeds can be worked in 

 quite evenly. It has been my practice, for sev- 

 eral years past, to plow such stubble land in the 

 fall, and thereby considerable convenience has 

 been found in getting the spring work along sea- 

 sonably. F. HOLBROOK. 



Braitleboro', November 2, 1858. 



SUCCESS OF THE STEAM PLOW. 

 During the last year, the Illinois State Board of 

 Agi-iculture off"ered a premium of $5000 for the 

 best Steam Plow, capable of doing the work well. 

 We gather from an article in Emenfs Journal of 

 Agriculture, published at Chisfego, that it M'as ex- 

 pected that three different inventions would be 

 exhibited and tested at the State Fair at Centra- 

 lia on the 16th of September, but only one was 

 on the ground. That was 



FAWKES' LOCOMOTIVE STEAM PLOW, 

 which excited great interest among the prairie 

 farmers, and performed well. The machine and 

 apparatus, with fuel and water, weighes only about 

 seven tons, and by the use of a drum or barrel- 

 shaped driver for propelling the locomotive, the 

 difficulty of miring in soft soil, and slipping on 

 hard, smooth ground, is overcome. The steam 

 plow is easily managed, and is described as a cross 

 between a locomotive and a tender, combining 

 the essential elements of both, mounted on two 

 guiding wheels and a huge roller. The prairie 

 ground on which it was tried was baked as hard 

 nearly as a brick, but the engine turned six fur- 

 row-8 side by side in the most ■workmanlike man- 

 ner. The excitement of the crowd was beyond 



