46 PLOWING! DOUBLE TEAMS. 



number ; make It an inducement for our young men and boys to pre- 

 sent themselves in the field and com)3ete for the premiums. 



In preparing a field for a corn crop many plans are suggested, and 

 as many adopted, but in the minds of your Committee, who have had 

 some experience and made some experiments, we would adopt the fol- 

 lowing, not only for the corn crop, but for those crops that follow : 

 turn the sod in August as light as it can possibly be done, say three 

 inches deep, and before the " setting in of winter," turn the furrows 

 back or " tilt them up edgewise" ; by this process the action of frost 

 in winter and the thawing in spring causes the sod to yield easily to the 

 harrow ; the field is now ready for thorough plowing, which should be 

 done on our best lands with a heavy team equal to that of four oxen ; 

 and for very good reasons the swivel or side hill plow should be used, 

 whether our fields are side hill or comparatively level ; by this opera- 

 tion our fields are left without dead furrows, and are made level and in 

 good preparation for the Horse Mower, which very uaeful farm imple- 

 ment is fast coming into use. If the field has never before been plowed 

 more than six inches, it is now the proper time to sink the plow to the 

 depth of seven or more inches, thus giving the surfiico soil one inch 

 more of depth, which is in effect, adding about one hundred loads of 

 thirty bushels each ; this may be considered sufficient both for the corn 

 crop and for those crops that follow for the next seven, eight, or ten 

 years, as the case may be. 



The use of the subsoil plough we believe would prove a valuable 

 acquisition to many of our fields ; the operation is expensive but effec- 

 tual in the end, as is field drainage ; it requires the same amount of 

 team and the same time to subsoil a field as it does to plow a grass 

 field seven inches deep on our best grain and grass lands, that is, in 

 soils where it can be used ; it serves to loosen the soil to almost any 

 desirable depth, thereby making a pasture ground for the smaller roots 

 to feed upon. It has, heretofore, been the popular doctrine that cere- 

 als did not extend only a few inches below the surface. But this 

 theory now being strongly confuted by those that have examined it, is 

 pretty well conceded that the roots and smaii fibers extend several feet. 

 Hence, if this theory be true, it Is manifest that by loosening and pul- 

 verizing the soil to the depth of one and a half feet or more, it will 

 produce a much stronger root and stalk, consequently, a greater yield. 

 In case however, where field drainage is necessary and the work has 

 not been done, perhaps subsoiling in many cases would not be effectual, 

 as this treatment would serve to make channels in the subsoil, and 

 cause the stagnant water to remain, or not find so ready passage as it 

 otherwise would have done ; and thereby making the soils more perni- 

 cious to the plant. 



The more effectual method of preparing the soil for plants doubtless, 

 is by spading, but this mode of cultivation is far too expensive to war- 

 rant the outlay to a very great extent, except to that class of farmers 

 that have a floating capital and are satisfied in adopting the principle 

 of sowing dollars and reaping dimes, perhaps for a series of years. 



