Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 545 



the field a succession of rectangular ridges. One advantage of this 

 plan is that it exposes more new surface to the atmospheric action, 

 in the proportion that the two legs of a triangle are longer than the 

 hypothenuse. Another advantage is that the angles of the ridges 

 present points more salient and advantageous for attack in the 

 farther operations of disintegration than the flat surfaces. The dis- 

 advantages are, that the extent of surface exposed is not all of it 

 that which it is most desirable to have receive the atmospheric 

 action, and that one-quarter or one-third of the surface that it is 

 most desirable to have acted upon is shut out from that action by 

 being overlapped by the following furrow. In both these cases 

 the width of the slices must exceed the thickness or depth of plow- 

 ing by at le^st the proportion of seven to nine. Thus, to make a 

 fuiTOw seven inches deep, the slice must be nine inches wide, and 

 to turn to an angle of forty-five degrees, it must be ten inches wide. 

 To make a furrow fourteen inches deep, it would require eighteen 

 or twenty inches of width. As the width of the slice increases, the 

 disadvantage of the oblique direction in stratification becomes 

 greater, rendering it difficult to gain the thoroughness of disinte- 

 gration and the homogenity by mixing, that are important for 

 evenness of growth, and the best condition of vegetation. 



The advantages and disadvantages of either method will be 

 affected somewhat by circumstances, so that an absolute rule, uni- 

 versally applicable, cannot be had, and it is not very important 

 when the depth of plowing does not exceed six inches; but when 

 the depth becomes greater than six inches or thereabout (noting 

 nice points of difference), the stratification of the angular jiosition 

 begins to be in some degree objectionable, from the difiSculty in 

 the after working of securing homogenity, or uniformity of fertility 

 horizontally, and especially when the soil is tm-ned up from any 

 greater depth than has been heretofore exposed. This may be 

 called " wrong stratification," in plowing. The soil may, for illus- 

 tration, be divided imaginai'ily into horizontal laj^ers of one inch 

 in thickness; now, in order to secure evenness of gro^\i;h, we must 

 have a great degree of uniformity of texture and quality throughout 

 the length and breadth of each of these imaginary layers, and 

 going to the depth of ten or twelve inches, the disadvantage of 

 wrong stratification becomes of sufficient importance to demand 

 attention, but the remedy is not to be found in flat turning, which 

 is impracticable by ordinary plows with this thickness of slices. 



[Inst.] 35 



