118 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 



row at every 16.920 inches, which is deepened and 

 cleaned by means of a double struckbrett, [mouldboards 

 fixed to the plough,] with a clayey soil ; this operation 

 is indispensable. 



" The advantage of this mode of treatment is, that it 

 keeps the soil dry, and renders it capable of being culti- 

 vated three weeks sooner than other shallow land ; that it 

 avoids stiffness, and, on the contrary, the high ridges, being 

 frozen through in the winter, are found very mellow in 

 the spring. I cannot deny that in autumn this requires 

 four kinds of ploughs, (the two last of which may certainly 

 be considered as only half kinds of ploughs,) instead of one 

 kind, generally used on large farms. Moreover, this depth 

 of mould cannot be obtained in less than ten years, when, 

 at the same time, the disadvantage of an inferior subsoil 

 can be repaired by manure, which will add about one 

 inch of mould in a year — a method quite impossible on 

 large farms, and on small ones attainable only by a pro- 

 prietor, and never by a farmer. 



" These high furrows are separated in the spring with 

 the four-horse split plough : if the land is quite clean, it 

 may, after being harrowed in the manner which will be 

 mentioned hereafter, be immediately sown ; but if it is 

 not, it is hooked [harrowed] crosswise. 



"4. All the land which is not rayolt [trench-ploughed] 

 — because there remains from the preceding harvest too 

 much manure on the surface, which, if the next crop 

 should want it.) must not be removed too far, is, if it bears 

 no manure crop, ploughed in autumn, first shallow, then 

 deep, and lastly laid in high furrows. In spring, in which 

 there is as little ploughing as possible, it is, after the split- 

 ting, according to the necessity of the crop and soil, first 

 harrowed, and then hooked crosswise, or only harrowed 

 in the manner prescribed. 



"5. It is a principal maxim to sow a green crop for 

 ploughing in, in the rape-seed stubble, as well as in the 

 corn stubble, where no clover has been sown. In August, 

 I use for this purpose rape-seed ; in the beginning of Sep- 

 tember, turnips ; from the middle of September to the 

 middle of October, rye ; then there is but one ploughing 



