do something toward rendering available such plant food as may be already in the 

 soil. They will also correct any acidity in the soil, and in the case of ashes and lime 

 will do something to improve the physical condition. 



Humus, however, is the material required to get the soil in good crop producing 

 shape. The farmer's aim should be, therefore, not to find out by chemical analysis 

 what elements of plant food appear to be lacking in whole or in part, but rather to 

 improve the physical condition of his soil by adding humus, draining properly and per- 

 forming the necessary cultural operations in the right way, at the right time. 



Cultural Operations and Implements 



The following notes on cultural operations and implements will probably serve to 

 supplement the preceding paragraphs on crop rotation and soil cultivation. 



Ploughing — Ploughing is admittedly the foundation operation in all crop pro- 

 duction effort. Ploughing has been performed with many different kinds of plough and 

 in many different styles. No definite rule can be laid down as to the best method of 

 ploughing. A safe rule, however, is to plough only when the soil is in shape, that is 

 when not too wet; this rule, of course, applying to heavy soils only. 



Ploughing deeply in autumn, turning an upstanding furrow, and ploughing shallow 

 In spring, turning a low-lying or flat furrow, is another general rule and is applicable 

 to a greater variety of soils than the first. Ploughing should, in my opinion, be done 

 whenever possible with the two-furrow gang plough, using four, or at least three horses. 

 In this way, the cost of the operation is materially reduced. 



Disc ploughs recently put on the market afford a means of performing this pper- 

 ation at times and under condition where it would probably be impossible for the 

 common mouldboard plough to operate, as for instance, ploughing heavy clay lands 

 when hard and dry. They are also useful in burying manure, grass or weeds and in 

 exposing heavy soils to the action of the frost, since they leave a very rough surface 

 exposed to the air. 



Subsoil ploughing is a cultural operation very seldom practised, and one that should 

 be more frequently performed by the farmer, and serves, as indicated in preceding 

 paragraphs, to open up the upper subsoil and so increase the water containing capacity 

 of the root-holding soil strata. The subsoil plough may to a certain extent be replaced 

 by what is known as the subsoil hook, a cheap, light affair, that can be readily attached 

 to the beam of any plough and passing over between the handles, do a good job in the 

 way of stirring to a depth of three or four inches, the upper subsoil. 



Harrowing — A great variety of implements have been devised and put on the 

 market wherewith to perform the operation commonly known as harrowing. Of all 

 these implements the disc harrow is probably the most generally useful and the most 

 effective in the work of preparing soil for seed after it has been ploughed. The larger 

 the disc and the more acute the angle at which it is set in operation, the more effectively 

 will it work. To insure good work, however, with a large sharp-set disc, rolling is 

 necessary in order to crush the soil down that it may remain in place when being carved 

 by the disc. 



A new disc harrow, known as the Double Cutaway, has recently made its appearance 

 and has proven to be a most excellent implement. It consists of two disc harrows, one 

 in front of the other, cutting, the one wiih an inthrow and the other with an outthrow; 

 the discs are so placed as to prevent their running in the same track, hence a much more 

 thorough cutting up of the surface soil is insured. Considerably more power is neces- 

 sary to operate this disc than in the case of a single disc. It is, however, an implement 

 capable of materially reducing the cost of preparing the soil for seed after the land is 

 ploughed. 



The spring tooth harrow is an implement that cannot be too strongly condemned, 

 where used, as is commonly the case, on sod land or on rough hard land. This imple- 

 ment tears up the sods, exposes the grass and leaves an exceedingly rough surface, 

 very certain to give poor results in crop production. 



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