METHODS OF PLOWING 117 



product of more than forty centuries of slow im- 

 provement. During this time it has developed 

 from a crooked stick, which barely scratched the 

 surface and served no other purpose than that of 

 permitting the seed to be sown, to a tool that pul- 

 verises the soil, increases its water-holding capacity, 

 adds to its fertility and has a more important in- 

 fluence on the productiveness of the land than any 

 other single treatment that it receives. Many 

 attempts have been made to introduce substitutes 

 for the plow in preparing the soil for crops, but 

 none have been uniformly successful, although 

 various ingenious spading tools are of considerable 

 utility in special cases. 



The improvement of the plow and of plowing will 

 continue. Where it is practicable for the farmer to 

 use greater power, deeper working plows will be 

 used, which will pulverise the soil to a much greater 

 depth, thus increasing its water-holding capacity 

 and its productivity. The fact that the plow the 

 most important tool of agriculture was improved 

 more during the nineteenth century than in all the 

 centuries that precede, well illustrates the changed 

 point of view, in this new era, when the best 

 thought and the highest inventive genius of the world 

 are being brought to bear upon the problems of the 

 farmer. Two centuries ago this would not have 

 been possible. 



THE OBJECTS OF PLOWING 



Aside from crumbling the soil, the chief objects 

 of plowing are to destroy wild plants so that culti- 

 vated plants may be grown in their place; and to 

 bury the trash, as corn stubble and potato vines, 

 so that the soil may be made ready for a new crop. 



