No. 4.] MARKET GARDENING. 73 



the plough. My observation has been that heavy dressings 

 of both manure and chemicals tend to carelessness in properly 

 fitting the ground. With the plough, the object seems to be 

 to turn the whole thing over, and bury trash, manure, weeds 

 and everything else out of sight. The harrow is then used 

 on the upper few inches, and then the seed bed is supposed 

 to be ready. I have always believed that one reason why 

 stable manure gives such excellent results is the fact that it 

 is alkaline, and thus reduced the sourness in the soil ; for I 

 am convinced that sour soils are about as prevalent as sour 

 tempers. We have noticed that something of this same result 

 is obtained by constant and thorough stirring of the soil so 

 that the air and sunshine may work all through it. As I 

 have said, we prefer the Cutaway to the plough on my soil, 

 because it stirs and kicks the earth instead of turninof it over 

 solid. With the time spent in ploughing an acre I can work 

 it over three times with the Cutaway, and I believe it pays 

 to work our soil over at least six times before putting seed 

 into it. My wife can drive the Cutaway or Iron Age two- 

 horse cultivator as well as any man, and she likes to do it, 

 because she thus sets the men free to work at other hand- 

 work. 



Most of you have doubtless heard of the wonderful results 

 obtained by Edison in taking iron ore from the mountains 

 of New Jersey. Edison did not go to the rich iron deposits 

 far away from the seaboard. He knew that there was iron 

 in those Jersey hills. Others knew it also, but they passed 

 it by because they said the metal was so fine and so widely 

 scattered that it would not pay to try and mine it. Edison 

 knew it was there, and he set himself to work to devise some 

 scheme for gathering it. For years he has been quietly at 

 work back among the hills. The result is that he has revolu- 

 tionized the iron industry of the world. Great masses of the 

 rock are blown away from the mountain and crushed into 

 powder almost by their own force in falling. The crushed 

 rock falls past huge magnets, and on these magnets the par- 

 ticles of iron are safely gathered, where they can be removed, 

 melted into blocks and shipped to the seaboard. In one 

 way, we try to do on our little farm what Edison attempts to 

 do amid the rocks. The plant food is there in the sand. 



