28 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



us large annual returns, with but small outlay. But the horse 

 rake has for the last dozen years been speaking in language 

 not to be misunderstood. And now the mowing machines have 

 been brought into use, and will cut our grass at the right time, 

 and in the best manner, if we prepare a tolerably smooth sur- 

 face for them to work over. Several acres of this land have been 

 prepared in the manner above described, and now produce two 

 tons of good hay to the acre. Such lands were never designed 

 for the plough ; and in sinking the stones, we only wish to put 

 them just below the surface. Some are only pounded off with 

 sledge hammers, and the surplus of subsoil is used to grade 

 up. One peck of herds grass and twice as much red top are 

 then sown, and two cartloads of compost spread, and all 

 smoothed over with the bush harrow. Such lands as these 

 have suffered much by the mismanagement of inexperienced or 

 unskilful cultivators. This moist, stony ground has in many 

 cases been broken into with the plough, all the surface stones 

 taken out and made into costly division walls, when, in fact, 

 Nature had designed them for natural mowing. In England 

 the landlord, in his leasing of land, takes the precaution to 

 prohibit his tenant from ploughing certain lands, and they will 

 be good for generations to come. 



All my fields designed for cultivation or for a rotation of 

 crops have been ploughed with a Michigan plough, to the depth 

 of from eight to twelve inches, for the last three years. This 

 can only be done with a strong team. In breaking up the sub- 

 stratum of these clayed soils to the depth of ten inches, where 

 they have never been disturbed more than half that depth be- 

 fore, it requires three times the strength of team that is need- 

 ed in shallow ploughing. The cost of ploughing in this way is 

 about six dollars per acre, while ploughing five or six inches 

 deep costs but three; but for all coming time the substratum 

 is broken, and the soils thoroughly mixed, without the aid of a 

 heavy iron tooth harrow. Five acres of my mowing land, 

 which had been grown to grass for from ten to twelve years, 

 have been most successfully ploughed with the Michigan plough 

 to the depth of ten inches. A light bush harrow was passed 

 through it lengthwise. Thirty ox cartloads, of thirty bushels 

 each to the acre, of the above described salted compost were 



