8 NEW HAMPSHIRE AGRICULTURE. 



rattling at night of dry bones about the headboard of his bed as 

 would drive " sleep from his eyes and slumber from his eyelids." 

 He therefore determined to break up as fast as he could his 

 exhausted, turf-bound fields, and after thorough pulverization 

 and fertilization seed them anew. 



This work was begun in 1853, by breaking up a section of 

 run-out grass land to the depth of eight and a half to nine 

 inches. The favorite breaking-up plow then in use in his 

 locality, was the old cast-iron " Lion plow." Its successful 

 operation on interval turf land required a plowman, two team- 

 sters, and eight oxen. It turned a fifteen-inch furrow slice 

 perfectly flat, shutting it in closely against its neighbor, and 

 leaving the ground as smooth and solid as before. 



Upon the soil thus inverted, manure was spread at the rate 

 of ten cords per acre and buried with a seed plow, running 

 some four inches deep. Thus prepared, the eight years' rota- 

 tion above mentioned began. 



The present proprietor will never forget his first attempt at 

 plowing. He took his initial lesson in an effort to plow 

 under manure upon an inverted sod. The plow seemed aware 

 that a green hand was between its stilts, and showed a per- 

 sistent determination to either dive under the furrow slices or 

 scoot from the ground. To keep it in place, he expended all 

 his strength, sometimes turning it one way and again the 

 other ; sometimes lifting it up, and at others bearing it down ; 

 all the while making very poor work and learning the impor- 

 tant fact, that a balk in one furrow secured the imperfection of 

 the next. At the end of two or three hours, he was the 

 "tiredest" man ever seen on the First Minister's Farm, and 

 he had reached the conclusion that plowing was very hard 

 work. But first conclusions are not always correct. 



It at length occurred to him that if he would restrict his 

 efforts to the guidance only of the plow and leave its draft to 

 the team, he might save both muscle and perspiration. This 

 idea was an inspiration. From that time to this, he has al- 

 lowed his teams to do his plowing, contenting himself with the 

 simple direction of his implements. 



Following a plow all day long in the constant endeavor to 

 make every furrow like every other perfect furrow, may seem 



