78 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



certain failures of crops may be anticipated. Hence 

 the farmer is usually more hurried by his work in 

 the spring than he ought to be, in order to avoid 

 having his crops caught by the early frost. It should 

 be the object of the farmer to have his necessary la- 

 bour as nearly equalized through the season as pos- 

 sible, and thus avoid all pressures at inconvenient 

 times of the year. Experience shows that the 

 farmer, in most cases, has more leisure hours in the 

 fall of the year than at any other time : and he who 

 would work it right should employ this time in ad- 

 ■ vancing his next spring's work (for such fall plough- 

 ing emphatically is), and thus preventing the press- 

 ure of business then usually felt. 



Mucli having been said of late in relation to deep 

 ploughing, it may not be amiss here to discuss that 

 question. We believe that the nature of the soil 

 and subsoil should determine the depth. A shoal 

 soil, with a clay subsoil, will not admit of being 

 plougned deep ; but any soil composed of loam or 

 sand may, and probably ought to be ploughed much 

 deeper than has been the practice of our farmers. 

 For such sward land seven or eight inches are not 

 too deep. The advantages are numerous. It will 

 afford a better opportunity to cover long and unrot- 

 ted manures, the fermentation of which beneath the 

 sward must be of lasting benefit to the soil. It gives 

 an opportunity to work above the sward with the 

 smaller plough, harrow, and hoe ; is a greater saving 

 of the manure of the sward, which has been esti- 

 mated at twelve tons to the acre ; and, if the lana is 

 to be stocked down immediately to grass without 

 hoeing, it can be done much sooner, with the same 

 degree of smoothness, by means of the harrow and 

 roller : a deeper and looser soil is also created, 

 much to the advantage of succeeding crops, inas- 

 much as the tendency of the manures ploughed in is 

 to rise and pass off by evaporation, and not, as has 

 been supposed, to soak downward. There are some 



