36 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



CKOSS PLOWIIfQ. 



Opinions diflFer in regard to the expediency of 

 cross plowing sward lands, — some contending that 

 ■where the sward is comparatively light, such as is 

 often found on old pastures or fields that have 

 been long run out, cross plowing assists in the af- 

 ter culture of the crop to a much greater extent 

 than the cost of the cross plowing. We have 

 thought this to be true in our own practice on 

 such lands. But there is another point to be con- 

 sidered, especially when heavy sward lands are to 

 be wrought. We will state some of the reasons 

 that occur to us. 



Unfermented vegetable and animal matters, 

 when buried in the soil as aliment for crops, ought 

 not to be exposed to the action of the sun and 

 winds until they have completely decomposed. 

 The gaseous products eliminated by stable ma- 

 nure and other decomposable products, while in a 

 fermenting state, always ascend, because they are 

 specifically Kghter than atmospheric air. They 

 consequently enrich the soil by which, if properly 

 inhumed, they are fixed, and thus contribute to 

 the sustenance and support of plants. K fermen- 

 tation takes place on the surface, as we think it 

 will, in some degree, under favorable circumstau- j 

 ces, the gaseous products will be difi'used and 

 lost. The quantity of actually soluble matter 

 contained in an acre of well set sward land is 

 much more considerable than many would imag- 

 ine. 



An English writer has ascertained that a vigor- 

 ous sward, inveiled in the latter part of summer, 

 after the hay has been cut, or in the spring, before 

 the grass has attained much growth, contains not 

 less than thirty tons of vegetable matter to the 

 acre ! This, when resolved to humiis by a well 

 graduated decomposition, will aff"ord a highly sal- 

 utary aliment to vegetation, and if permitted to 

 decompose beneath the soil, will essentially con- 

 tribute to its productiveness. "We make these 

 remarks, bearing in mind all the time that de- 

 composition is comparatively slow on the surface, 

 and, also, the doctrine and practice, of some Eng- 

 lish farmers and writers, that nothing is lost in 

 surface manuring. In that climate there may 

 not be. In ours, under the scorching suns that 

 occur even in May and September, we firmly be- 

 lieve it would be considerable. 



When, for the sake of a more thorough tilth, it 

 is thought advisable to cross plow land, the first 

 plowing should be deep, and the second, or cross 

 plowing, shallow, in order that the pulverization, 

 which is the object sought in the latter plowing, 

 may be secured without disturbing the mass of 

 vegetable matter turned down by the first. If 

 the second plowing be as deep as the first, the 

 furrow slice, or sward, will be cut, and brought to 

 the surface, greatly to the annoyance of the work- 



men, and perhaps, to the soil and crop. In pul- 

 verizing the surface of recently plowed green 

 sward lands, the cultivator, or horse hoe, is far pre- 

 ferable to the plow. It pulverizes thoroughly as 

 far as its teeth penetrate, and does not go so far 

 below the surface as to to disturb the sods. 



It is the practice in some sections of New Eng- 

 land to plow the grass land intended for corn the 

 next year, soon after the hay crop has been re- 

 moved in July or August, allowing a few days for 

 a new crop of leaves to start out after the grass 

 is cut. It is thought by some with whom we have 

 conversed, that this practice is an excellent one, 

 though no reasons were given besides the one 

 that the corn crop was much better than when the 

 land was plowed late in the faU, or in the spring. 

 If such is the fact, it will not be difficult to assign 

 a reason or reasons for it. 



For tite New England Farmer. 



ARE APPLE ORCHARDS PROFITABLE 

 ON ARABLE LAND ? 



Mr. Editor: — A few years ago, when the 

 fruit-tree growing fever was raging at its highest 

 pitch, when men got rich on unhatched chickens, 

 and when one of my neighbors estimated his peach 

 nursery at §1700 in a wakeful dream, I went a 

 journey into the State of Elaine, laboring some- 

 what under the same malady in a mild form, to 

 visit a friend who was a practical farmer, and the 

 owner of an ajjple orchard. On looking about on 

 his and his neighbor's orchards, I saw but a few 

 grafted trees. I said, "Mr. G., why do you not graft 

 your trees and raise fruit for the market ?" I never 

 shall forget the expression of his countenance as 

 he replied to my question. "Why," he said, "it 

 would be all lost labor, and that their markets 

 were already glutted with good apples, and that 

 cider would not pay for making." His remarks 

 made so strong an impression upon my mind that 

 my visions of getting rich by raising apples for the 

 market began to vanish, till my mind, I am in 

 hopes, was restored to a sound state. 



My neighbor, stated above, who valued his 

 peach nursery at $1700, never realized 17 cents 

 for his imaginary, inflated riches, and many other 

 air-castles shared the same fate. As I have trav- 

 elled over the counties of Essex and Middlesex of 

 late, I have observed that much of the best soil 

 was "devoted" to apple orchards, and (I believe 

 in a true sense of the word "devoted,") many of 

 them had hardly arrived to a producing state, and 

 thousands, if not tens of thousands, of unproduc- 

 tive nurslings are occupying some of the best soil 

 in the State, to what result the revelations of the 

 future must decide. Raising apples for the mar- 

 ket in the vicinity of our seaboard cities, undoubt- 

 edly, will be a profitable business ; the privilege 

 of shipping and sending them to foreign markets 

 will reduce the quantity some, but, in a jilentiful 

 season, all our market towns consume but a pit- 

 tance of the quantity grown. I have conversed 

 w'ith some of the owners of the finest orchards in 

 the county, (one of them living within a rifle shot 

 of Lowell,) who told me that their apples did not 

 pay the labor of nicking and carrying to maricet 



