PLOWING DOUBLE TEAMS. 47 



Yankees generally favor the maxim of quick returns, although the 

 profits are small. 



If green sward is to be turned up for winter wheat, it should be 

 plowed in August with a good team and an expert plowman ; the soils 

 should not be turned at a less depth than seven and one-half inches, 

 and the furrows laid as flat as circumstancos will permit ; that is, the 

 furrows should not lap upon each other, as this would cause extra labor 

 in making a smooth surface. About twenty-five loads of compost 

 manure incorporated with seventy-five or one hundred bushels of leached 

 ashes or its value in some other fertilizer, will produce an amount of 

 wheat equal in value to seventy-five bushels of corn ; by turning the 

 sod to a proper depth, or about an inch deeper than at former plow- 

 ings, we have a surface soil of seven or eight inches ; the manure and 

 fertilizers produce a strong growth of the young plant in the autumn 

 after sowing ; and as the roots of all grains extend to comparatively 

 great depths below the surface, in the course of the next summer they 

 find a rich pasture ground in the sod that is constantly decaying, to feed 

 upon ; besides, through the influence of solar heat there is constantly a 

 " sucking or drawing up" of the nourishment of the decomposed vege- 

 table matter that encourages the growth of the young plant. 



We recommend comparatively deep plowing in all cases, in order to 

 give a deeper and more friable soil for the small rootlets to make their 

 researches. It is noticeable in fields where the stumps of trees have 

 stood for a long time, and where we should expect to see the stronger 

 plants, we notice the very opposite, and the cause may be attributed to 

 inefficient plowing. If spring wheat is to be sown " on stubble," we 

 recommend not only deep, but frequent plowing ; a thorough pulveriza- 

 tion of the soil, and the last plowing to be cut so fine that the field may 

 have the appearance of being harrowed. 



The writer of these remarks became satisfied of this operation from 

 being obliged to plow a field three times in consequence of frequent 

 rains in spring, where one plowing in the majority of cases would have 

 been considered sufficient ; the result was, when it became time to cul- 

 tivate and hoe the field, with a very little eflfort upon the handles of the 

 horse-hoe, the teeth or cutters could be penetrated into the soil to the 

 depth of the wood work, and the whole field was very similar " to an 

 ash heap," or garden mould. A deep pulverization of the soil is nec- 

 essary to the germination of the seed and the ready extension of the 

 roots, to the free circulation in it of moisture and air and the admission 

 of solar heat, all combining to prepare and transmit food to the growing 

 plant. If the soil is lumpy or coarse, and does not come in close contact 

 with the seed to keep it moist, the seed cannot germinate ; the roots 

 cannot freely extend in search of food nor can this food be properly 

 prepared and transmitted to the plant unless the soil is so pulverized 

 as to permit the free circulation of air and moisture through its inter- 

 stices and through its mass. The air and dews are charged with ele- 

 ments of fertility, and the more freely they are permitted to penetrate 

 the soil the more benefit will they impart to the crop. 



In closing our report, we regret to say that only one Double Team 



