4o TILLAoE,. 



and various tribog of insects. It is supposed that double 

 tillaf^e will preserve and continue the effects of manure 

 nearly twice as long as with ordinary management. — 

 Where manures cannot be had in due quantity, tillage 

 will in a manner supply the deficiency ; and where they 

 are ever so plentiful, it will be a means of giving them 

 greater effect. The finer the earth is made, the more 

 it is enriched by dews, rain and air. For it has been 

 lound by experiment, that by taking some of the most 

 barren earth, powdering it well, exposing it abroad for 

 a year, and stirring it about frequently, it will become 

 so fertile as to receive and nourish almost any plant in 

 a high degree. Thorough ploughing therefore, is of 

 such absolute necessity, that whoever is wanting ia 

 this work, must expect a deficiency of crop. 



Agriculture, like other business, having profit for its 

 object, is a subject of calculation ; and its labors must be 

 regulated by its end. The number of ploughings must 

 depend upon the soil, weather^ season, crop and cul- 

 ture. For wheat the ground should at least be thrice 

 ploughed ; but wheat requires more preparatory plough- 

 ing than rye, and rye more than oats. Clay ground 

 demands more tillage than calcarious earth, and calcar- 

 ious earth more than sand. Wet or dry weather makes 

 frequent ploughings (according to circumstances) either 

 useful, injurious, or impracticable. 



Proper season to plough The prevailing opinion is 



strongly in favor of fall ploughing; because to the ac- 

 tion of air and moisture, it adds that of^ro^f, wliich may 

 be considered as a plough, superior to any thing that 

 Can be made by the hand of man ; it expands the mois- 

 ture, which requiring more sppice removes every par- 

 ticle of earth, and separates them from each other. Al- 

 most all tillage land should, therefore, be ploughed in 

 autumn, both in new and old ground. But all clay op 

 loam}' soils are more particularly benefited by fall plough- 

 ing ; because on those the action of frost is greater, and 

 because one ploughing of this kind may save two in the 

 .spring, when time is every thing ; besides our teams 

 at that season of the year, are much weaker than they 

 are in the fall. But land ploughed in the fall must be 

 again ploughed in the >-:pring ; and a weaker team can 

 then be able to perform it. Fall ploughing is also con- 



