PUBLISHED BY Wll.UAM iNR;HOLS, ROGERS' BUU-IHSCS, CONGRESS Si KEET, (FOURJll DOOR EftOM SI A 11. STREET.) 



iou 11. 



BOSTON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER «, 1823. 



No. !5. 



Farmer's and Gardener's Reiiunibranccr. 

 [bi the editor.] 

 REM.^RKS ON PLOUGHING. 

 Althoiiirli we have in tlie first volume of this 

 rk, pases 60, 27C, 30.3, trented nn this suhject, 

 ne further observations on the most impor- 

 it operation of agriculture may, perhaps, 

 ive heneficial, to practical farmers, by tur- 

 hinst hint«, and sng-ges^ting ideas which may 

 d lo a train of investigation tertuinaling in 

 lilts of importance. 



n all stiff, heavy and adhesive soils, that are 

 ch disposed to moisture, it should be a com- 

 n rule not to plough them nhilc wet in any 

 isiderahle degree, especially if there is much 

 y in their composition. When such land is 

 u?hed wet, the particles of which it is corn- 

 ed are apt to cake, or run together into 

 d lumps, which require much trouble and 

 otir to reduce to a tine state. Besides, much 

 TV is produced by the treading of the teanr, 

 reater power is necessary in perl'ormin;;' 

 o[)eralion. But, on the other hand, such 

 are ploughed with much diiliculty, when 

 y dry ; unless before the plousjhma: they 

 in a state o( tillage, and not baked or 

 nd down very hard. To breali up grass 

 und composed of a strong lo;ini, or a soil in 

 ch there is clay in any consKltralii*' quantity 

 n in a dry state, is n-ixt to inipo>>iilile. Yoi. 

 ht almost as well Rltemfit to plough up a 

 k pavement, or slate rock. Green svypi-d 

 encral, can hardly be ploughed too wet, ifi 

 e not miry. Marshy, moory, and peaty or 

 3y descriptions of soil, should in general, 

 n already reduced to a state of tillage, be 

 ighed vvhen the season is dry. 



dry, sandy, and perhaps, in some of the 

 e mellow kinds of loamy soils, the business 

 loughing may be pertormed when the earth 

 a state of considerable moisture. But ve- 

 rv sandy land, whenever the weather is hot 

 drv, should merely be stirred in such a way 

 lay be necessary to prevent the growth ol 

 d« ; otherwise the great exhalation of mois- 

 in such seasons may render them too dry 

 the viiforous vegetation of the seeds or 

 ts, which may be sown or growing upon 

 a. The cultivators of this kind of soil have, 

 etore, nraiiy advantages over others who 

 engaged in the more stiff and heavy sorts ol 

 ,, in being able to pertbrm the various ope- 

 ODS of arable husbandry with much less 

 igth and expense of team, and by being 

 h less interrupted by the wetness ot the 

 ins. St.fl" clayey soils, which are already 

 T the plough, may be beneficially ploughed 

 ■y weather, and it is said that stirring such 

 in a dry season, causes them to imbibe mois- 

 , but in sandy soils the opposite result is 

 liiced by the same means, 

 is very fashionable, and as a general rule, 

 correct to recommend deep ploughing, 

 ihis rule has a great many exceptions, and 

 cultivator, who should be governed by it 

 lOut regard to the nature of the soil, and the 

 •rsed crops, would only labour hard to in- 

 I his land,, and reduce his products. We 



have already in vol. i. page 60, given " Maxims 

 respecting the proper depth of ploughing,"' and 

 "Advantages of deep ploughing." It may not 

 be amiss to attend to what some writers have 

 observed respecting the dangers and disadvan- 

 tages, which attend plciighins: deep without re- 

 gard to the nature of the soil and other circum- 

 stances. It is observed in Dickson's Agriculture 

 that " though dee[) ploughing has been recom- 

 mended by some modern writers upon (larticti- 

 lar kinds ol' land, where the bottom and top 

 were of two opposite qualities, and .neither of 

 them perfectly good, that a mixture may some- 

 liincs be very beneficial, and the experiment of 

 s;oing below the common deptii sometimes an- 

 swer, liut that when the top and bottom for 

 eighteen or twenty inches depth consists of the 

 same soil, it is not believed it is ever (vorth while 

 to exchange the upper part, which has been 

 enriched lor centuries back, for a part less tich, 

 merely because it is more fresh. On retentive 

 soils, where the practice of loosening them to 

 ■ome depth by other implements is omitted, 

 deep ploughing is, however, extremely neces- 

 sary." 



In an " Essay on the best Means of convert- 

 ing Grass Lanils into Tillage, by James Roper 

 Head, Esq." published in Communications to the 

 Board of Jgriatlttire, vol. iii. page 346, it is ob- 

 served that " it seems reasonable to prefer lighi 

 to heavy ploughing, because, all things being 

 equal, it must be preferable to have a small 

 depth of soil to cultivate and inqirove, and in- 

 asmuch as the fibres of grass in general arc fei! 

 from the upper surface of the earth alone, il 

 ihey find sullicient pabulum ; all that lie under- 

 neath their nourishment, and has been with 

 much labour moved by t!ie [)lougli, is like a 

 stock in trade, which requires an extra capital, 

 unproductive of interest. 



'■ I have endeavoured by all means to search 

 into the nature of sainfoin, clover, and lucern. 

 and the result of my opinion has been that the 

 long penetrating tap roots of these grasses pierce 

 the earth in search o< moisture only; that the 

 tap root is the mere syphon and duct ; that the 

 branches of the crown of the plant arc fed alone 

 by the upper surface of the soil ; and that the 

 luxuriancy of their produce depends not upoi 

 the congeniality of the bed or nidus [nest] oi' 

 the tap root itself; but on the congeniality oi 

 the soil of the upper surface, which alone feeds 

 and furnishes it vegetation." 



An article in " Communications to the Boarri 

 of Agriculture" vol. iv. page 147, written by 

 John M. Mardo, Esq. contains the following 

 statement. " We have witnessed instances where 

 old pasture lands, composed of a gravelly loam 

 were broken up in the spring lor barley by 

 trench ploughing. The old sward was turneil 

 into the bottom of the furrow, and a dry subsoil 

 brought to the surface from a considerable 

 depth. The crop.' failed entirely, and there ap- 

 peared two very obvious reasons for the failure ; 

 first, the subsoil brought to the surface to form 

 the seed bed had long been deprived of the or- 

 dinary influence of the atmosphere, and the 

 rams ; consequently must have been cold and 

 infertile. Secondly, the dry tenacious sward 



having been placed half broken nmier the seed 

 bed, the natural moisture of the ij'riiund, as well 

 as that which filh in rain, was speedily and ha^ 

 bitually evaporated; unless in a season of un- 

 common moisture, a crop under such prepara- 

 tion could not prosper." 



A writer in ihe General Hepprt of Scotland, 

 Mr. James Browtihill, says " Old Leas, j Grass- 

 grounds] in my opinion should be ploughed if 

 possible not above 4~ inches deep by 8^^ or 9 

 inches broad. If the old lea be a dry soil, it 

 will plough very well with those dimensions; 

 if it be ploughed deejier it must also he plough- 

 ed broader, as the furrows will not ply close' 

 to one another, unless you have breadth in 

 [iioporlion to Ihe deplh." 



Sir John .Sinclair speaks highly of the advan- 

 tages of deep ploughing in some circumstances 

 and for some crops, but says " it is a generat 

 rule never to plough so deep as to penetrate 

 lielow the soil that was fonnerly manured and 

 cultivated excepting upon fallow, and then only, 

 when you have plenty of lime or dung to add 

 to, and improve the new soil." The farmers 

 of Flanders, which is said to be the best cnlti- 

 ited part of Europe, gradually deepen their 

 soil by ploiiijhing or digging up fiesh earth, 

 as their manure increases. Mr. Arthur Youn" 

 likewise observes that in poor hungry soils 

 some proportion eight to be observed betiveen 

 the deptli of a ploughing and the quantity of 

 manure annually spread. The same writer in- 

 forms us that Ihe depth of ploughing in various 

 towns o»' England, on an avarnge in sandy soils 



was four inches ; in loamy soibiv.>.. .....1,^1 



quarters, and in clayey soils three inches and a 

 half. But a note in Sir John Sinclair's " Code 

 of Agriculture" informs that " Mr. Parker of 

 iMundcn, prefers nine inches for the depth of 

 |)loughing, arid he has practised that system foi' 

 many years, or\ good loamy land in Huntingdon- 

 -hire, as well as in the clays and flints of Hert- 

 t'ordshire. He nuver lost a crop by it, but has 

 met with unvaried success; and he is clearly of 

 opinion, that the propriety of deep ploughing 

 ought not to bo made a question, but received 

 is an admitted truth. The farming gardeners 

 near London, act upon the same system with 

 great success. They plough to the depth of 

 irom ten to twelve inches, for cabbages and 

 other crops, with implements made on purpose, 

 and with from six to eight powerful horses. 

 .^Ir. i\lnrshall has known a succession ot shallow 

 [ilouijhing farmers beggared on a stiff land farm ; 

 and their successors by deeper tillage, make a 

 farmer's fortune upon it." 



We have heretofore, vol. i. page 278, given 

 some remarks on the advantages of Fall Plough- 

 ;ng, and showed wherein it was in general to 

 be preferred to ploughing in the spring. We 

 shall add nothing at this time, to that part of 

 our subject, but hope our agricultural readers 

 will attend to Horizontal Ptmighing. In page 

 14, of our first volume we have given an arti- 

 cle on the subject of drawing horizontal or per- 

 fectly level furrows on hilly lands, and given a 

 cut of the rafter level ; or implement introduc- 

 ed into Virginia by Col, Randolph, son in law t» 

 Mr. Jefferson. 



