PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 77 



any other. Those insects which produce the most 

 mischief to the farmer, such as the fly, cut-woiTn, 

 grub, &c., cannot resist the frost of our winters, if 

 prematurely exposed to its action by a fall plough- 

 ing. The cut-worm, which accumulates in such 

 numbers in old meadows and pastures, is thus de- 

 stroyed, and crops planted on them saved. 



Fall ploughing has another advantage, in placing 

 the work to be done at a season of the year when 

 the farmer is less driven by his business than at any 

 other time. In the spring, a vast amount of labour 

 is required to be done in a short time, especially on 

 those farms where spring is substituted for winter 

 w^heat ; and every acre ploughed in the fall may be 

 considered as forwarding the spring work one day 

 at least. Besides, as most farmers manage their 

 stock, their teams are much more capable of work 

 in the fall than spring ; the work is done when their 

 horses and oxen are in good heart, and not during 

 the faintness that accompanies the approach of 

 warm weather. It is true, such a condition of 

 working cattle or horses should not exist ; their 

 keeping should be a safeguard against falling away 

 in the winter or weakness in the spring ; but we 

 are too often content to put up with things as they 

 are, rather than make efforts to have them as they 

 should be. 



On soils very porous (those composed of gravel 

 and sand), in which, for the want of a retentive sub- 

 stratum, manures are apt to sink and their good ef- 

 fects to be lost ; or on lands liable to be washed, as 

 side hills, where the finer particles of the soil are in 

 danger of being carried off by every rain or the melt- 

 ing of the snow, fall ploughing may not be advisa- 

 ble ; but on most others we are confident that its 

 adoption will jje attended with beneficial effects. 



Lastly. Our summers are so limited in duration, 

 that,, unless the time allotted to vegetation is fully 

 occupied by the growth and ripening of plants, the 



