64 SIMPLE OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



improved in the staple. This course is recommended to in- 

 crease the depth of the soil of uplands. 



Considerable diversity of opinion prevails among practical 

 and scientific farmers, as to the best mode of ploughing. 

 Until within a few years, it was the universal practice, with 

 perhaps an occasional exception, to throw the furrow at an 

 angle of about 45 (degrees). 



The advocates of the level system of ploughing, are, how- 

 ever, increasing. We do not say that this method is prefer- 

 able to ridge ploughing on all occasions; very stiff and wet 

 lands may form an exception; but it appears to us reasonable 

 that this process leaves the land in the best form for the after 

 tillage, and by covering all stubble and green crop completely 

 under, and leaving the surface level, light and friable, fits it 

 for the production of good crops, requiring less strength of 

 team to draw the plough, and less effort of the ploughman to 

 govern it. 



WILLIAM BUCKMINSTER, an eminent farmer near Boston, 

 Massachusetts, thus speaks of the latter method. "The best 

 ploughing is that which most completely subverts the soil and 

 buries beneath it the entire vegetable growth. To effect this 

 a good plough is indispensable. Rough and stony ground may 

 indeed be rooted up by the short rooter plough. Such lands 

 are usually cross-ploughed before planting. Plain fields re- 

 quire a different instrument; a much longer plough is wanted 

 here, to turn the furrow flat without breaking, and without the 

 aid of the ploughman's foot. Such an instrument runs easier 

 than a short one, because it enters the earth more gradually, 

 as a thin wedge opens wood more easily than a thick one. 

 The furrow rises less suddenly on the inclined plane of the 

 mould board, and falls where it should do, in the bed of the 

 preceding furrow, and completely fills it. To make sure work, 

 the coulter or cutter should not stand perpendicular, but should* 

 lean to the right, being placed a little anglewise in the beam 

 for this purpose, and cutting the edge of the furrow slice in a 

 bevil form, it will then shut in like a trap door. Let not my 

 brother farmers be alarmed lest their lands should be turned 

 too flat! If they wish to see them lie edge up, or shingled, 

 one furrow upon another, or broken into short junks, they can 

 use a short rooter or a post, as the Africans do. 'But/ say 

 they, 'the soil should be light.' Newly ploughed greensward 

 always lies too light the first summer and requires thorough 

 rolling and harrowing, to prevent its suffering for want of 

 moisture; for unless the particles of earth, &c. come in con- 

 tact, capillary attraction ceases and the turned sod draws no 



