USE SHARES' HAEROW. 197 



old ground, there is often a gain in the crop by ploughing and 

 harrowing more than once before seeding, particularly where 

 the land is to be sowed to roots, as the second ploughing not 

 only produces a more perfect pulverization but destroys a crop 

 of weeds just germinating. 



For an inverted sod, one of your Committee has found 

 " Shares' Harrow " to be altogether the best and most perfect 

 instrument in use. It not only pulverizes the soil thoroughly 

 and deeply, but it does it without pulling up the sod. It is 

 also claimed that it puts in seed at a uniform depth, covering 

 the whole, and leaving none on the surface of the ground. 



These are the usual mechanical operations practised in pre- 

 paring land to be planted with the various crops. But this 

 should be only a part of the preparation ; for, to produce good 

 crops, the plants must be supplied with nutriment adapted to 

 their sustenance, and in such quantities and in such a condition 

 as to be readily taken up and assimilated by the plant, to insure 

 a full crop. Now it is a well-settled fact that a perfect or a fat 

 animal cannot be produced upon poor, miserable keeping, that 

 two cans of milk a day cannot be got from a cow fed on coarse 

 sedge alone ; but it would be just as reasonable to expect such 

 a result as it would be to produce one hundred bushels of corn, 

 fifty bushels of wheat or five hundred bushels of potatoes on an 

 acre upon our worn soils, without supplying sufficient manure 

 adapted to their vigorous growth. 



Therefore, while we would urge the great importance of 

 ploughing, harrowing and stirring the ground thoroughly, that 

 alone is not sufficient to produce crops on our soils. There 

 must be a good supply of manure, and it must be applied 

 in abundance, if we desire large crops. Barnyard manure is 

 and must continue to be the principal source of fertilization of 

 the land, combining as it does most of the ingredients required 

 for the growth of all plants. It not only furnishes food for 

 plants, but, when mixed with the soil, it acts as a divisor, and 

 in the process of decomposition generates gases which permeate 

 and loosen the soil, making it light and friable ; and it also dis- 

 solves or liberates mineral matters already in the soil, fit- 

 ting them for plant-food. Still there are certain elements re- 

 quired by the various kinds of plants cultivated that are not 

 furnished in sufiicient quantities for their full and perfect devel- 



