CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



ing this work, it will be profitable to have a hand follow, 

 whose business it should be to rectify places in which the work 

 is imperfectly performed. Such should be the tillage of green- 

 sward when corn is to be planted upon it. 



"But why speak of such tillage as though it were applicable 

 to corn ground alone? In no other manner should greensward 

 ever be broken up, whatever may be the immediate use for 

 which it is intended. If farmers, when they commence their 

 summer fallows, would plough in the manner now suggested, 

 instead of cutting and covering and leaving the clods in all 

 positions, as many of them do, their gains would be very 

 great" 



After the plough comes the roller. It is by no means a 

 matter of indifference whether the ground be or be not rolled. 

 The roller is of great use in settling down the turf, and thus 

 placing it in a situation the more readily to rot, and administer 

 nutriment to the crop. The roller as well as the harrow, 

 should be drawn only in the direction of the furrows, not 

 across them. But if the use of the roller is forbidden by the 

 presence of too many stumps or stones, then the tillage must 

 be completed as well as it can be by the harrow only. But it 

 must be remembered that rolling in no case supersedes the use 

 of the harrow. 



The last implement employed in the tillage of the ground, 

 preparatory to planting, is the harrow. It should not be used 

 sparingly, but carried over the ground until the entire face or 

 surface of the inverted sward is completely broken up and 

 thoroughly pulverized. The full benefit of the harrow in such 

 cases, is rarely realised, as it is seldom used as much as it 

 should be. After the sward has been thus prepared, it should 

 in no case whatever be subsequently operated on, or stirred 

 up so deeply as to disturb the sod. In subsequent tillage, the 

 cultivator may be used to great advantage the operations of 

 whatever kind should be superficial.* 



Manure. "Unfermented stable and yard manure is de- 

 cidedly preferable if spread broadcast, as it always should be, 

 and thoroughly buried with the plough. It keeps the soil open, 

 and permeable to heat, air and moisture, the agents of nutri- 

 tion; it imparts warmth to the soil while undergoing the pro- 

 cess of fermentation, and affords the best food for the crop."t 



EDWARD TATNALL, of Brandy wine, Delaware, has furnished 

 the public with some interesting statements relative to his 

 method of growing corn. He says, speaking of the manure, 

 "it is best to combine the lime and manure by applying both 



* Cultivator, yol. iii. p. 21. t Ibid. 



