18G9. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKIMER. 



265 



PliOUGHS AND 4'LOtJGHlNQ. 



OJiE time in Febru- 

 ary last we noticed 

 at some length a 

 report of a trial of 

 ploughs, held at 

 Utica, by the New 

 York State Agri- 

 cultural Society, in 

 September, 18C7. 

 What we then said 

 was mostly confined 

 to a brief history 

 of the plough,, — 

 showing how grad- 

 ually improvements 

 had been made, and 

 by whom. At pres- 

 ent we shall speak 

 of some of the ob- 

 jects to be accom- 

 plished by plough- 

 ing, and what kind 

 of an implement is best adapted to secure 

 these objects. 



Before entering, however, upon the subject 

 matter in hand, we wish to say that the Marie 

 Lane Express, published in London, and 

 probably the leading agricultural journal in 

 Europe, speaks in very high terms of Mr. 

 Gould's report. It says, "The report of 

 English judges on the horse- plough trials, in- 

 stituted by the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, at Leicester, last year, extends over 

 six pages cf the Society's last number. The 

 table of dynamometrical results of that report 

 is simply incomprehensible, without a guide. 

 Com ared to that under notice (Mr. Gould's) 

 the English report is meagre in the extreme. 

 We invite the editor to study the New York 

 State report ; it is clear from it that the Amer- 

 icans carry ^ out their trials of agricultural 

 implenit;"ts and machinery thoroughly, and 

 take great pains to render the history of them 

 interesting and instructive." The Express 

 "regrets that no English ploughs competed at 

 these trials." • 



We have often urged upon the reader the 

 importance of bringing the soil into a healthy, 

 active, mechanical condition. This is certainly 

 next in importance to manuring the soil, if it 

 does not stand equal to it. In a very able re- 

 view of the report, Mr. Geddes says, two speci- 



mens cf soil, precisely alike, as determined 

 by chemical analysis, may be and often are 

 quite unlike in their power to produce crops. 

 The committee discuss this subject fully and 

 ably, and from this discussion derive the con- 

 clusion that one cf the leading objects of 

 ploughing clay or any tenacious soils is to re- 

 duce the size of the particles and to pulverize 

 and mix all of them in the most peif ct man- 

 ner. A ton cf barn-yard manure, containing 

 17.4 pound of ammonia, may be spread over 

 a given suiface of ground and abundantly 

 supply the plants growing there with ammonia. 

 A ton of coal containing 47.6 pounds cf am- 

 monia, spread over an equal suiface, will give 

 the growing plants no7ie. 



"The important question for the farmer to 

 ask is, not so much how much plant nutriment 

 is contained in the soil, but how much is there 

 which is in such a physical and chemical condi- 

 tion as to be available'''' for the support of the 

 growing plant. 



Soils that have the greatest amount of capil- 

 lary porosity, the committee say, will condense 

 the greatest amount cf manurial substances 

 on their internal surfaces ; will retain them 

 longest, and will give them out most readily 

 to the rootlets of the growing plant. A mass 

 of adhesive clay will absorb but a very slight 

 amount of available manure ; but if ibis same 

 mass is rendered friable by mechanical pro- 

 cesses, its power cf absorption is amazingly 

 increased. By pulverization the air is ad- 

 mitted to the soil, which becomes the agent of 

 converting the carbon existing in it to carbonic 

 acid, which in its turn renders many substances 

 which were previously useless, very efficient 

 in promoting the growth of plants. 



It is clear that the plough is the implement 

 to bring tlie soil into the condition described 

 above ; and that is the best plough which will 

 the most completely do this work — other 

 things being equal. The use of the spade for 

 pulverizing the soil is out of the question 

 with us, where wages are so high. The har- 

 row will not do it ; that implement levels, but 

 does not disintegrate. Use it long enough 

 and it will compact the mellow soil of a field 

 into a surface as hard as that of the highway. 

 The plough is the only effectual and economi- 

 cal tool yet devised to work the soil into its 

 finest particles. To bring the plough into the 

 proper shape to accomplish this, and at the 



