122 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



there can be no doubt of the superior economy, as 

 well as the more orderly appearance of the drill 

 system. 



Take for instance our ordinary crop of potatoes, 

 (and I think the details of its management were never 

 before subject of discussion in a similar context ;) four 

 out of ten patches of this worthy esculent, are, in 

 New England soil, put down in wavy lines of hills 

 irregular in distance, slatternly in culture, and yet 

 involving per bushel a far larger expense for tillage 

 and harvesting, than if dressed, planted, cleaned, and 

 earthed up according to some system which would 

 demand trim lines, even distances, and a complete 

 shading of the whole ground in the season of their 

 most rampant growth. Perhaps I shall not be counted 

 too intolerably practical, if I indicate the actual 

 method of procedure which has been sometimes fol- 

 lowed under my own observation. We will suppose 

 that a good surface of sward-land (requiring a lift by 

 reason of its weediness) is turned over lightly, (and 

 flatly, if you please,) in the month of October. Noth- 

 ing offers better pabulum for potatoes, or indeed 

 almost any crop, than decaying turf. In April the 

 raw surface is levelled with a light Scotch harrow, 

 and thereupon all is turned under seven inches by the 

 best plow at command with three horses abreast; 

 (two will weary of the work.) After this the harrow 



