58 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



ftqjt. 11, 1S29 ;i 



FOR THE KEW 



CLAIIO FARMil 



PLOUGHING GIlllEN SWARD, &c. ♦ 

 Mb Fessende.-* — I have renJ with great satis- 

 fuction, llie seiisilile romiiiuiiicatiuii of E. I'., in 

 your lust Farmer, on " I'lougliing Green Bwaiil."* 

 His suggestions in general ore entitled to full con- 

 fidence in this matter, as his own careful experi- 

 ments show ; which, though 1 have no douht orig- 

 inal with him, and creditable to his skill and judg- 

 ment, yet the same system has been pursued by 

 several distinguished cultivators, and with such 

 success as fully to determine its |iroi)ricty. Lo- 

 rain, in his admirable book on Husbandry, urges it 

 very strongly, though, as I have not the hook at 

 hand, I cannot now specify the page ; and by u 

 reference to the third volume of the N. V.. Farmer, 

 page 84, where an account is given of the farming 

 of Kabi. Stimso>, Esc)., in Saratoga county N. Y., 

 deciiledly the most successful farmer in the coun- 

 try, and to his address to the society of his county 

 for promoting agriculture, published in another 

 volume of your Farmer,t where he gives the de- 

 tails of his managpiiicnt, it will be seen that he 

 has followed the plan recommended by your cor- 

 respondent. His system is, as I understand it, to 

 plough shallow ; never to go below tlie rich earth 

 or soil ; next, completely to invert the sod, and by 

 excluding the air by rolling it hard, to produce a 

 complete and speedy decomposition of the vo^'eta- 

 ble substance thus turned under ; then spreading 

 his manure on tho top of the inverted sward, 

 ploughing it in by a very shallow furrow ; and ta- 

 king all possible pains never to disturb the sward 

 so as to bring the grass or herbage again upon the 

 surface. It is by this process, and a enost careful 

 system of alternating crops, following a succession 

 of five or eight years, that he has succeeded in 

 more than doubling liis |)roducts, and very greatly 

 les.->ening the expenses of cultivation. 



Ill my small way, I have, by repeated ex|)eri- 

 inents, become entirely convinced of the expedi- 

 ency of this method, though in a conversation on 

 the subject at the late ploughing match in Bright- 

 on, with several experienced farmers in the vicini- 

 ty of Boston, I found myself quite in tho minority. 

 They preferred leaving the sod standing inclined, 

 but not inverted and laiil flat; and were very de- 

 termined in ])referring deep ploughing to shallow. 

 The fact is, they obtain such large quantities of 

 manure from the city, and enrich their grounds so 

 abundantly, that they do not perceive the evils of 

 bringing so much of the cold and barren earth 

 upon the surface, which Ihey must experience, 

 whose means of obtaining manur : are of neces- 

 sity much smaller and morn diflicult. All coun- 

 sels, therefore, in favor of very deep ploughing 

 are to be received by those who do not reckon 

 upon living as long as niethuselali, with great 

 caution. The present top soil or enriched sur- 

 face of the earth is tho accunndalioii of the ile- 

 posils and accretions of many centuries ; and it 

 must be a very bold and aspiring and)ition wlich, 

 disdaining to use what is already on hand, chooses 

 to place it so far bidow the surface that vegetation 

 will derive little bem.'fit from it, and sets about 

 the lieroic enterprise of making a now soil for 

 itself. S. X. 



Jlufcust 28, 1820. 



Remarks by the Eitilor. — No general nilos, with 

 regard to ploughing, will apply in all cnaos. The 



depth anil frequency of ploughing, the width and 

 manner of placing the furrow slice, should be reg- 

 ulated by the nature and r|uality of the soil, quan- 

 tity of mamire to be used, and the |>roperties of 

 tho vegetables proposed to be raised. Deep 

 ploughing may be a very ])ro(itahle i)racticc in a 

 rich and dttp loamy soil, especially when it is pre- 

 paratory to the growth of long, and tap-rooted 

 plants, such as nuingel wurtzel, carrots, clover, 

 lucerne, ice. But in a shallow, fertile soil, incum- 

 bent on a cold clay, a sandy or rocky substratum, 

 the ploughing must of course, be somewhat super- 

 ficial. Such soil, however, may and ought, when 

 practicable, to be rendered deeper by degrees, 

 ploughing up a small ijuanlily of barren earth at 

 a time, and manuring plentifully. 



IMr Arthur Yoc.ng, a celebrated English agri- 

 culturist, by attending particularly to the depth of 

 lilowghing in various towns in England, found, 

 that the average depth in sandy .soils, was four 

 inches, in loamy soils four and three quarters, and 

 in clayey soils three and an half. But in Ireland 

 they plough much deeper ; sometimes not less 

 than nine or ten inches. Jlr Stimson states that 

 in the full his " ploughmen turned over the sod 

 about three inches in depth, and from eight to ten 

 inches in width."* 



" The soil of this land is a brown loam lying 

 on a stratum of lime and sand stone, at the dej)tli 

 of from three to six feet, projecting out of the 

 ground occasionally on the brink of ridges." 

 This could not be said to be a shallow soil, unless 

 there was something different from the " brown 

 loam" intervening between its surface and the 

 " stratum of lime and sand sione." The projier 

 depth for ploughing such soil, if the English 

 practice, as stated above, is correct, would have 

 Iieen " four and three quarters," Inches, instead of 

 " about three inches," according to IMr Sfiinson's 

 mode of ])loiigliing. Mr .Stimson likewise .slates 

 that " for the first four or five years after a part 

 of this land came into my possession, I ploughed 

 in what little manure I saved, Jive or six inches 

 deep. T laid out much labor and got small crops." 

 Mr Stimson spread over the land (after he began 

 to plough it but 3 iiichffs deep)" from six to eight 

 three horse loads of manure per acre, and on 

 the driest and most barren I have added three or 

 four loads of old leached ashes — rolled it down 

 with a roller five feet long and twenty inches in 

 diameter. This was done to pulverize the lumps, 

 and settle the manure and land together." The 

 land thus jircpared was planted with corn and 

 potatoes, and .Mr S. states," In the fall, I gathered 

 on an average from sixty to seventy bushels of 

 corn per acre fit for the crib, and from four hun- 

 dred and fifty to five hundr(Ml bushels of potatoes. 

 After the corn was harvested, the hills were har- 

 rowed with a two horse drag. In the spring I 

 ploughed just ilccj) enough to Itini np the old sod, 

 which had become a fine vegetable mould," &c. 

 The succeeding cro|) was barley, with an average 

 produce of forty bushels per acre, &c. 



yMlhoiigh this was very successful culture, that 

 of our correspondent E. P. as stated page I'J of 

 our current volume, appears to have exceeded it. 

 E. I*, in his second experiment ploughed sward 

 land /rom /our to six inches deep, varying according 

 to the depth of the soil — harrowed lightly — mo- 

 nuicil with twenty cart loads of compost fiir two 

 acri's, planted with corn, and his crop was estima- 

 ted from 70 to 80 bushels to the acre. Tho seed 



for the next crop of r)e was put into the groi fi- 

 without ploughing up the sod first turned unc (V- 

 and he states that " the two acres gave me 

 twccn four and five tons of straw, and 69J bi 

 els of excellent grain. I had never before gi 

 ered more than lo biLrihels to the acre. ' 

 grass seed sowed witli the rye look well and 

 appearance at present is favorable for a g 

 burden of griss the next season. I have 

 with one ploughing only taken lico crops from 

 ground, and stocked it down to grass." 



It ap]iears that .Mr Stimson ploughed his gro |^ i 

 in the fall, about three inches deep. E.I', jdoiig 

 his in May, from four to six inches deep. 

 Stimson applied from six to eight three h'l 

 loails of manure jicr acre, adding on the dil 







■ y«c pago 42 of iko current volunM. t Vol. s, page %j3. 



and most barren parts three or four loads of 

 leached ashes, and his crop of corn was f 

 sixty to .seventy bushels per acre. E. P. api 

 twenty cart loads of compost to two acres, 

 obtained by estimation, from seventy to ei; 

 bushels of corn per acre. For the second r 

 tion Mr Stimson ploughed in the spring just i 

 enough to turn up the old sod, solved barley, 

 obtained 40 bushels per acre. The second • |fi 

 of E. P. was rye, obtained " without disturl 

 the sward," ond amounted to C9J biishcU 

 two acres. The principal difl^crences in the 

 thodsby whichtbcse excellent cultivators obta 

 their unconmion crops were in the depth of ploi 

 ing, (Stimson ploughing but three, and E. 1*. t 

 four to six inches deep,) and in turning iqi tlu 

 sod for the grain crop, which was Stimson's u 

 of culture, but E. 1*. with but one ploughing 

 two crops, and laid his land down to grass, 

 this process all the fiiod fiir |ilaiits containci 

 the sward was not only ploughed under, but 

 under the surface, insfad of being ploughec 

 again for the second crop. 



Although the New York cultivator raiscil 1 

 crops by ploughing but three inches deci), yi 

 our Massachusetts farmer obtained still lurgr 



* N. E. runner, voluiuo v. pogo 26t, 



ploughing from four to six inches deep, the bal 

 of those accounts seemsto be in favor of ihc di 

 ploughing. But neither mode of culture cm 

 perly be called ileep ]>loughing. Arthur \'^ 

 says " soils arc rarely found that ought ni>t t« 

 ploughed in common, six inches deep : i 

 ought to be stirred eight inches, and some 

 The same writer also says, "One deep ploii^ 

 (to the full depth) should be given once in tw 

 eighteen or twenty-four months : if ibis be seci 

 shallow tillage is in many cases preferable to 

 working oftener, especially for wheat, which 

 a firm bottom." This, however, is a subjc 

 which justice cannot be done by a brief disi 

 ion ; and we would beg leave to refer those 

 would wish to pursue the inquiry, to the 

 England Farmer, volume ii. p. 113, 111, I'Jl 

 iii,p. 126, vol. vi, p. 229. 



Ii' 



NEATNESS IN A DAIRY. 



1 know not how it is, Mr Editor, luit son 

 our ilairy women, who would be highly olVei 

 by the slightest imputation of negligence or > 

 of cleanliness in their work, and who pride tl 

 selves on their personal neatness, are, nevenhc 

 in the careless habit of trusting to combs, moi 

 less in number, to keep up their liair I forgot 

 that however well it may bo piU up in this i 

 yet tho exertion of cutting curd, beating 

 washing butter, iVc. &c., will soon di.sarraiig 

 and subject tho otherwise tidy housewife to 



