368 



Autumnal Ploughing for Oats. 



VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Autumnal Ploughiug for Oats. 



Mr. Editor, — It lias been witli considera- 

 ble distrust that I have sometimes heard of 

 the Enijlish mode of ploughinor the land, de- 

 signed tor oats in the spring-, early in the 

 previous autumn ; not being able to per- 

 suade myself that the land, after lying for so 

 long a time unworked, would bo found a fit 

 seed-bed for the crop — in short, I thought the 

 account was foreign, both to our circum- 

 stances and to the truth ; but I have since 

 learnt that the experiment has been made, 

 and is likely to be crowned with success; if 

 so, the plan is an excellent one for the relief 

 of our spring labours, as well as giving us an 

 opportunity of an early sowing — a circum- 

 stance which I have long been convinced is 

 of vast importance in the cultivation of that 

 crop. On this subject a friend has sent me 

 the following account, extracted from some 

 work on husbandry — a plan which he assures 

 me would be found to work well in this coun- 

 try, the oat requiring a close, compact seed- 

 bed, which is given by an autumnal plough- 

 ing, preparatory to a spring sowing. " On 

 the 20th of October, I commenced ploughing 

 a field of 52 acres for oats ; the land broke 

 up very fine, being after tares, and I feared 

 that it would become too flat by the winter 

 rains, &-c., for spring sowing without another 

 ploughing; but although the land was light, 

 and fell so fine, yet at the seed time, the 

 20th of February, the oats were so complete- 

 ly covered hy Jive harrow ings, as to show the 

 effects of early ploughing in the winter. This 

 plan of fallowing for oats is admirable, and 

 answers in every respect; the oats were bu- 

 ried deep, and prospered beyond those I sowed 

 the same year after two ploughings; and 

 when I mowed them, they were in every re- 

 spect a great crop. I concluded, therefore, 

 that ploughing thus early is best, since the 

 earth, by receiving the winter rains and 

 frosts, retains so much moisture, as to bring 

 all the oats away at once ; the contrary of 

 which is often the case in light lands sown 

 after the plough. In the beginning of No- 

 vember, I ploughed up four acres of a field 

 containing fourteen acres, which had been 

 laid down to red clover for two years, during 

 which it had been mown ; and although it 

 was clayey land, it broke up pretty freely, 

 and, therefore, liaving much other business 

 on hand at the time, I thought I would deliy 

 the breaking up the rest of the field until 

 January, supposing it would harrow well by 

 the end of February, when sown with oats; 

 accordingly, the latter end of January 1 

 ploughed the rest, and sowed the whole field 

 with black oats the latter end of February. 

 The land dressed well with the harrows, but 



this difference I observed — the four acres of 

 land ploughed in November was broken by 

 the frosts to dust, the other part was not so 

 fine, although it worked very mellow. This 

 experiment I made, on conjecture that the 

 four acres ploughed so early would carry the 

 best oats — and my expectation was answered, 

 for although the whole field from the first 

 appearance gave me great hopes of a good 

 crop, by the latter end of May, the four acres 

 which were ploughed in November were dis- 

 tinguishable in colour for a quarter of a mile, 

 being much stronger and darker in colour. 

 On the 8lh of June, I took a view of another 

 field consisting of six acres, which 1 had 

 ploughed in the winter in the same manner, 

 viz: four acres in October, when the ground 

 was very dry, and in January the two re- 

 maining acres, the ground being then dry 

 also ; and this field had been, like the other, 

 two years in red clover; both parts turned 

 up very mellow, being sown to black oats in 

 the latter end of February, and harrowed 

 fine, only with this difitrence, the four acres 

 ploughed in October worked like ashes. The 

 result was like the former, the oats in the 

 four acres were thicker, stouter, and of a 

 deeper green than the two acres; and in ad- 

 dition, it is to be noted that in both the fields, 

 on those parts ploughed earliest, no grass ap- 

 peared during the winter, nor in the spring, 

 to prejudice the harrowing." 



On the occasion of spring-sowing oats on 

 land turned up in the autumn, without other 

 ploughing, it is asserted, that four bushels of 

 seed per acre will not be found too large a 

 quantity; that it will all come together and 

 form a regular crop, without danger of falling 

 before ripe; and tiie frost-pulverized surface 

 of the land will be by far the best seed-bed 

 for clover and the grass seeds, being more 

 free fiom weeds, and better calculated for 

 covering them : the crop of oats too will be 

 larger in quantity and incomparably better in 

 quality, coming to harvest earlier, with a much 

 heavier straw. Might we not expect to find 

 that this mode of culture will obtain notice 

 throughout the country, so soon as the fact 

 has been ascertained ! John Daley. 



OxK of the chief errors of our husbandry is, 

 to cultivate too much land; because it is only 

 half done. Half the quantity, with double 

 the work on it, would insure double crops, 

 which would be found more profitable. 



" We should be sorry to have every body 

 agree with us, or ourselves to agree with 

 everybody else — this would be dull work, 

 and put an eflectual stop to all inquiry — con- 

 sequently, to all intellectual progress." 



