SlO Tr A XS ACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



bad management, there will, in clay soils, be some small lamps after 

 the plowing and harrowing has been done. In snch a ease tlie roller 

 or clod-crusher must be used to reduce these lumps to powder. 



Next comes the drill to sow the seed in. A good drill following 

 the roller not only sows the seed in the best manner, but it cultivates 

 the land far better than any harrow. The drill spouts lift the sur- 

 face soil and throw it into ridges, that by falling back cover the seed 

 lightly at 'first, and still deeper as the M'cather acts upon them during 

 the fall, winter, and following spring, when alternate frosts and 

 thaws are expected. The rougher the drill loaves the surface of the 

 land the better; and there is no greater mistake than to roll clayey 

 lands in the fall, after the seed is sown. 



In open winters the land will for many Aveeks be frozen hard and 

 exposed to the winds, uncovered b_y snow. In such cases, gales will 

 drive the dust made of the frozen earth, sometimes to great distances. 

 If the young wheat plants, growing from the l)ottom of the trenches, 

 made by the drill spouts, have a ridge to the windward of them, 

 they will be planted deeper by these gales ; while if the ground was 

 left level, the plants on ridges and the more exposed places will have 

 all the earth blown away from them, and their roots exposed and 

 killed by the unpropitious season. The drill is a most important 

 farm implement to the raiser of winter \vheat, planting all the seed 

 to a uniform depth, and raising a barrier to protect feeble plants 

 from winter killing. But these barriers must be left until the trying 

 period has passed in the spring ; then the roller should be used for 

 the double purpose of leveling the ground, so that the reaper will 

 move smoothly over it in time of harvest, and for the further object 

 of breaking up and crushing the surface soil after the rains and frosts 

 of early spring are passed. This rolling, if done at the right time, 

 is of great value to young wheat, and assists materially in covering 

 the clover seed, but it must not be done until after the clover seed 

 has been sown. 



In sections of country that arc subject to open Avintors, it is advisa- 

 ble to run the drill at right angles to the direction of the prevailing 

 winds. I have observed this in my own farming with advantage, 

 and in cases where it was necessary to cross the line of the winds I 

 have drilled the field diagonally. 



ISTaked Summer Fallowing. 

 "When the country was new, the land abounding in the stumps of 

 forest trees, and more or less loose stones, made the perfect plowing 



