42 HAMPSHIEE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



dure the draft of a team. With a leather thong, the farmer fastens 

 the end of this to the yoke of a pair of cows or of oxen, as the case 

 may be, and drags it through the field in all directions till those huge 

 teeth, 20 inches long, readily sink into the ground their whole length, 

 and pass freely through it. Now what is the result of this? Why, 

 that he gets 50 bushels of wheat to the acre, once in two or three 

 yeai'S, and gets a large crop- of roots or some inferior gi-ain, the inter- 

 vening years, and that with a husbandry vastly inferior to our own in 

 every thing except the more careful preparation of the ground before 

 sowing. This refers to the north of Spain, among the Cantabrian 

 mountains, Avhere the climate is scarcely superior to our own ; and 

 where just about the same process of cropping has been going on for 

 at least 50 generations. 



We spoke of learning from an inferior. Vie are not going to ad- 

 vise you to work cows, as the Spaniard does ; nor to send your wives 

 out to drive them, as many Europeans do ; nor to substitute the 

 Spanish plow for your own beautiful instrument. The farmer should 

 imitate no one slavishly, but be ready to learn from ail, even from the 

 conservatives of the oldest plow in the world. We believe there is 

 many an old field in this region, of rather heavy loam, plowed for a 

 half a century 6 inches deep and no more ; clay colored, cold and im- 

 pervious as you descend below the six-inch level ; in v/hich if the 

 owner were shut up to the alternative, either of re-inverting the old 

 six inches, or of patiently scratching down three times that depth with 

 the Spanish plow, he might better choose the latter ; because by so 

 doing, although he should expend more labor in spring, he would 

 get a better return in- autumn, and leave his land in a better condi- 

 tion for future crops. But is it not possible that some instrument 

 adapted to produce a like effect on the soil to that of the Spanish 

 plow, but far easier, neater, and more v/orkmanlike m its operation, 

 wili yet be invented ? Is it not possible, that by means of it w-e may 

 yet be able to deepen our soils to any desirable extent, without great- 

 ly increasing the expense ? It might be a machine resembling the 

 tongue and fore Avheels of an ox- wagon, with steel bars running down 

 and sloping forvfard from the axle, so as to penetrate the soil more 

 or less, as they might be guaged, to be drawn by a powerful team 

 through the soil till all should be finely jjulverized. Some Yankee, 

 we think, will yet invent an implement which, for our alluvial soils, 

 such as are free from stones, wdll be better than Prouty, Mears & 

 Go's best, with the subsoil plow in the bargain. 



With regard to established modes of treating the soil, we would 

 not be radicals, nor yet would we be quite as conservative as those 

 •who use the oldest plow, iinaltered. We would not repudiate old 

 practices till quite sure that we have found better. To farmers we 

 would say, do not adopt, on mere recommendation, any theory, how- 

 ever plausible, till you have tried it on a small scale, so small as not 



