98 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



manure ; so we repeat, that draining our soils is a branch of 

 improvement, and its principles little understood, and its ad- 

 vantages not fully appreciated, and we are not likely to learn 

 much of either, except from experience and observation. 



Having prepared the soil for tillage by uuderdraining, the 

 next work of importance is effected by the use of that very 

 useful farm implement, the plough. Although improvement 

 within the last half century has been made in its construction, 

 yet the advancement in its use has not been in the same ratio ; 

 neither, as a general rule, have our grass-lands or other lands 

 been so well and effectually worked by the plough as they were 

 fifty years ago, and for the simple reason that our boys and 

 young men have not been trained to the work ; for a man ^Ho 

 hold the plough^^ or let the plough follow the team, the plough- 

 man having his mind and eyes on some other object is one thing ; 

 but to gauge the plough, give proper draught and cut a straight 

 furrow, of uniform width and depth, and lay the same even and 

 level throughout the field, is quite another. And not one in 

 ten who has never been trained in the work is able to perform 

 the task. It was truly said by an experienced former, that it 

 required more skill and ingenuity to govern and gauge the 

 plough, than for the Iniilder to make one, as the mechanic has 

 both rule and line to work l)y and guide liini, while the plough- 

 man has only his own eye and muscle to govern him. Hence, 

 to become a ploughman, the individual must not only have an 

 interest in and a desire for the work, but he must have no 

 small amount of practice. 



One object in ploughing is to make a mellow seed-bed for 

 the plant, capable of absorbing the elements from the atmos- 

 phere, essential for its growth'. The absorbing portion of the 

 soil is in proportion to its fineness ; the finer and more 

 porous we make the soil, the greater the power of absorption. 

 It is well known that if water, adulterated with barn-manure, 

 be filtered through fine pulverized clay, it is rendered nearly 

 pure ; when drained through gravel it is less so, and if sand 

 is used, the change is hardly perceptible. So that the finer 

 we make the soils, in the same' ratio will they retain those ele- 

 ments of the atmosphere necessary for plant-food. Hence, 

 if we would have our soils retain the manure and fertilizers we 

 put upon them, it is important that we make them fine and 



