30 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



which calamities are not much thought of provid- 

 ed there is steam enough put on to produce the 

 desired speed. 



On the whole, the land proprietors and those 

 who have not lifted a Bnger to aid in the construc- 

 tion of railroads have received the benefit in the 

 rise of their lands and the cheapness of conveyance 

 of persons and freight, too much at the expense 

 of enterprising stockholders, who are spectators 

 of the success of their philanthrophic schemes to 

 benefit their country. According to the weekly 

 sales of stocks in railroads very few of them pay as 

 high as 6 per cent, per annum on the shares, and 

 more which pay but little or nothing; but still the 

 stockholders ought to feel well rewarded for the 

 accomplisment of their successful enterprises in 

 acts of benevolence. 



It is to be regreted that railroad corporations 

 have not better feelings toward each other ; if 

 they were disposed to assist, instead of exercising 

 a baleful competition to injura each other, it would 

 be more in Christian character, and more to the 

 pecuniary advantage of all parties. Where there 

 IS litigation there is always waste, and the direc- 

 tors of railroads would do well to have as little 

 money as possible spent in ill nature, that the 

 deserving stockholders might have more to com- 

 pensate them for the risk they have run and the 

 expenses they have been at. 1 hope the millennium 

 among railroad corporations will soon take place, 

 when they will sit down in smiling repose to- 

 gether, (I do not mean on the track,) when there 

 shall be no disagreement among them to cause 

 injury to either party, when tliey shall all agree 

 in equitable charges for passengers and freight 

 that railroad conveyance throughout the country 

 may be sustained without bearing too heavily 

 upon an enterprising class of citizens. This war- 

 fare of driving one another from the field gener- 

 ally costs more than it comes to ; the ground is 

 genarally purchased at a dearer rate than it would 

 cost by treaty. Christian policy is the best, after 

 all. Silas Brown. 



Wilmington, 1853. 



N. B. I have made assertions in the above com- 

 munication, if doubted, I think I can prove by 

 statistics which are omitted in this that the com- 

 munication should not occupy more than its share 

 of room. 



has always required the same team to plow the 

 same depth and width with a single plow. But we 

 have great confidence in the knowledge of the ed- 

 itor of the Cultivator in agricultural dynamics, 

 and hope he will explain to us the reasons for his 

 opinions. 



DOUBLE, OR MICHIGAN PLOW. 



The Albav.y Cultivator, in reply to questions of a 

 correspondent, aays : — "The Michigan Plow,which 

 is strictly a ^re?icA-plow, is a capital implement, 

 but it requires nearly double the amount of team 

 to draw it, that is needed for a common plow of 

 corresponding size." 



We have given the double plow a pretty fair 

 trial on our own farm, and have conversed with 

 several excellent plowmen, in regard to the amount 

 of power required for this plow, compared with 

 one having a single mould-board, and the opinion 

 is common that the double plow requires no more 

 power, if, indeed, it does quite as much, to do the 

 same amount of work. We plow a furrow eight 



and nine inches in depth by ten inches wide, with 



two pair of oxen, on a stiff sward land, where it 1 the first time, and the subsoil brought to the suV- 



For ike New England Farmer. 



FALL PLOWING, &0. 



Mr. Editor : — Much has been written and said 

 of late, on the subject of -'Fall Plowing," as 

 whether advisable or not. Some contend that it 

 is a great advantage to plow ground wanted for 

 spring crops in the fall, while others say very lit- 

 tle or no soil should lie exposed to the frosts of 

 winter in a plowed state. Our experience leads us 

 to say that fall plowing is a benefit and an advan- 

 tage according to circumstances. Some eight or 

 nine years ago, we turned over a homestead mead- 

 ow just before winter set in, and in that condition 

 it lay till spring. We endeavored to plow as near 

 six inches deep as we could, and as the work was 

 done with'the "Prouty Plow," it was, of course, 

 well turned over. The soil was an upland old sward 

 which had not been plowed for some thirty years. 

 In the spring the soil was levelled down with the 

 roller and harrowed without plowing, and planted 

 to corn, when a heavy crop was produced. No 

 manure was plowed in the fall previous, nor was 

 any used in the spring excepting some compost, 

 which was spread on the gravel knolls. Since that 

 time we have turned over meadows in the same 

 way, and in the spring spread on a heavy eoat of 

 fresh manure,mixing and covering it as well as we 

 could with the harrow, and not plowing it again 

 for fear of tearing up the old sward. In this way 

 fine crops of corn and potatoes have been pro- 

 duced at small expense of labor But a better way, 

 we think, would be, to give the old meadow or 

 sward a good covering of stable or dung manure, 

 turning it down six or eight inches deep, and let- 

 ting it lay till spring. Still, as stable or dung man- 

 ure is not generally at hand in the fall, a good 

 way is to get the o-^nure all out on to the sward, 

 or meadow, in the s^ "'ng, and then in the first of 

 May, spread and turn 'm'^ manure all down with 

 a six or eight inch furrow, ^"e consider the differ- 

 ence betwixt fall and sprin„ plowing, as being 

 more with the convenience of the farmer as to 

 time, than whether the soil shall be killed by one 

 process, or cured by another. Both plans have 

 their peculiar advantages — fall plowing in break- 

 ing down oM swards that are inclining to stiff clay, 

 and exposing a multitude of larv^ ot nsects to 

 killing frosts, while spring plowing has all the ad- 

 vantages peculiar to itself. All farmers of "pro- 

 gress" go in for deep plowing. And yet we think 

 a great deal of unnecessary talk has been made as 

 to know just how long time it shall take to get d<jwn 

 to a certain depth of soil, say ten inches. There is 

 little danger that a farmer will plow an old i old 

 at a depth of eight or ten inches the first tii.io, 

 unless it should be done by the double plowi'.i;^ of 

 surface and subsoiling. We never have yet ir-en 

 an acre of soil, whether it be a good soil or an 'Id, 

 barren soil, that ever was injured in the long run 

 by deep plowing. Others may have seen divee .ly 

 to the contrary, and if so, then all very well, 'i'uke 

 an old barren field and plow it eight inches deep, 



