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ag€s and countries of the world, as the chief instrument to 

 prepare the soil for its annual harvest, and must almost as 

 neces«!arily precede the use of the harrow, the spade and 

 hoe, the scythe and sickle, the rake and the fork, as the 

 spring time must precede the growing summer, and the ripe 

 antunm harvest. 



Tliere has been constant improvement, from the crnde 

 implement of antiquity down to the present seemingly per- 

 fect implements used in the field of to-day. 



The Committee are of unanimous opinion, without wisii- 

 ing to make any invidious comparison of the numerous 

 well-constructed plows of the present manufacture, that the 

 double Michigan excels all others in thoroughly turning the 

 soil, pulverizing its surface, and preparing it for seed. In 

 fact, we think it about as good alone, as the common surface 

 plow and the harrow both, for the thorough pulverizing of 

 the soil, almost saving the use of the last implement. The 

 thorough cutting up or crushing of all lumps in the surface 

 of the soil, making it easily permeable to the little rootlets 

 of the springing vegetation, cannot well be over-estiiuated 

 by the practical farmer ; and as the Michigan plow more 

 thoroughly does this than any other, it must of course be of 

 superior value, especially in breaking up the fallow ground. 

 After a good strong team, well trained, attached to the best 

 model of the plow, and held by a good plowman, two things 

 are essential to the intelligent cultivation, viz: plowing to a 

 proper depth, and thoroughly turning the entire sod of the 

 field to a depth as low or lower as any of the grass roots 

 have penetrated. 



Till comparatively a recent date, good farmers have con- 

 sidered six inches to be deep plowing. We have to-day 

 instructed the competitors to sink the plow at least eight 

 inches, and nine or ten we have considered meritorious of our 

 awards, everything else being equal. Now this will not ap- 

 pear extravagant when it is known that roots of corn de- 

 scend to the depth of six feet in a soil that is sufficiently 

 permeable. A gentleman informed us some months since, 



