NEWBURY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY REPORT. 45 



a full stand. The second and after ploughings should be more 

 light, and, as the principal benefit which the crop derives is 

 from keeping the crop loose, and free from grass and weeds ; 

 the expanding cultivator, in a season not too wet, will be 

 found the best implement which can be used for this purpose. 

 It will finish the row by running once through it, thus saving 

 a good deal of labor in the crop, and the gsound is left in a 

 better condition than from the use of any other plough. Cot- 

 ton is more benefited than any other crop by rapid working, 

 and, in order to enable the planter to go over as often as his 

 crop requires it, he should adopt the plan of only partially 

 ploughing out the rows, and returning in a short time to finish 

 the work. This, the use of the cultivator will enable him to 

 do, on lands free from stumps and roots, but as it would be 

 impracticable on soils where such obstructions existed, the 

 use of broad shovel-ploughs and sweeps, applied in the man- 

 ner recommended, would be of great gain to the crop. The 

 cotton crop should be ploughed at least every ten days, and a 

 furrow or two seems to keep this plant in as good growing 

 condition, as if the entire row is regularly ploughed out. This 

 season, a shovel-plough or a sweep would only have cultivated 

 the grass, and those planters who used large turning-ploughs, 

 and, by completely subverting the soil, smothered the grass, 

 have succeeded in keeping their crops cleanest. In a dry 

 year, the process of superficial ploughing, or scarification, by 

 the use of the cultivator or sweeps, will answer an admirable 

 purpose, and be the proper system of tillage, but in a wet 

 season we have no fears in recommending the heavy turning- 

 ploughs, for the economical cultivation of cotton. All this, 

 however, is to be controlled by the season, and the prepara- 

 tion of the soil for the reception of the crop. Deep ploughing 

 does no good in the middle of the rows, when the soil upon 

 which the plants stand has not been broken up deep. Conr 



