THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



over the greatest possible breadth of land in a 

 day, than to do proper and the best work. 

 They cut their furrows too shallow, and as 

 wide as, or wider than the plow can possibly 

 turn them, and what portion cannot be got over 

 with the plow and aided by the foot of the 

 ploughman, rolls back into its bed again, and 

 the next time round its "grass side up" is put 

 out of sight by the "cut and cover" operation, 

 making a high ridge of earth with a deep hole 

 beside it. The ploughman twists and turns 

 himself in all manner of shapes, is vexed with 

 his plow, scolds at and witips his team furiously, 

 labors and tugs and sweais away, "from early 

 in the morning till late in the evening," and can 

 enow you as big and as mean a day's work as 

 you could wish to see, with hardly a rod square 

 of passably good work in the whole piece. 1 

 would not allow such a workman to plow a day 

 for me if he would do the work for nothing, 

 and pay ten dollars for the privilege. But if 

 properly conducted say for ten hours in a day, 

 which is all a merciful man will require of his 

 animals of draught, however he may be dispos- 

 ed as to himself, plowing is one of the finest and 

 most exhilirating employments in the world. 



Did you ever investigate the accurate philos- 

 ophy of the plow and of plowing? Take a 

 highly improved modern plow, and study it. 

 Look at it as a whole implement, and at its scv 

 eral parts, and reflect what a world of profound 

 study it has cost to produce that same imple- 

 ment. What high mechanical principles it in- 

 volves, and how beautifully do ihey combine 

 together to produce an exact and most valuable 

 result. There is the mould-board alone, al- 

 though an exact mathematical combination, 

 yet it is a problem for you, (I speak advisedly,) 

 which, if you have not solved if, i ! s solution 

 will give you a pretty sharp brush, with ah 

 your mathematics. Then, too, a combination 

 of mathematics, a litt.e vnried to suit each case., 

 will give you the best form of monld-board for 

 . sandy and gravelly s. ils, for clay, and heavy 

 moist soils generally, and for best working stub- 

 ble land. The plow best adapted to sandy, 

 and generally light, dry soils, will lay flat fur- 

 rows,~accurately shut in beside each other, thus 

 preventing a too great natural tendency to 



evaparati n, 



incident to such soils. Your 



fluences of the atmosphere, and greater cubical 

 contents of soil for the harrow to operate on in 

 raising a deep fine tilth, or seed-bed, and permit 

 underneath them a freer circulation of air, and 

 passage from the surface of superfluous mois- 

 ture, than furrows of any other form or propor- 

 tions that are practicable to be turned. The 

 plough in the very best manner adapted to the 

 working of stubble lands, will be higher in the 

 beam to enable it to pass obstructions, and 

 diorter in the turn of its mould-board, than ei- 

 ther of the preceding, wdl have a greater depth 

 of iron in the back parts of the mould-board, 

 which will tend to throw its loose stubble fur- 

 row all over to an iAverted position, and leave 

 a perfectly clean channel behind it for the re- 

 ception o! the next furrow. Thus you see there 

 is quite a philosophy in plows and in plowing^, 

 which the intellectual farmer is bound to 

 under tand. 



However dull and monotonous the business 

 of ploughing may be to you, it is not at all so 

 to me. Starting my team a-field of a bright 

 spring morning, with my plough all bright 

 and clean from its winter quarters, 1 feel as 

 honest a pride and pleasure at the thought of 

 my occupation as I ever do when engaging in 

 any employment. I strike out my lands with a 

 lurrow as straight as an air line. After this is 

 accomplished, I guage my plough to cut deep 

 furrows, and as narrow as is possibly compat- 

 ible with the depth, and then take them off the 

 land of uniformly exact depth and width, never 

 allowing a crooked furrow to be seen in my 

 plowing. To me it is very exhilirating to see 

 the furrows roll off my polished mould-board, 

 and lay beside each other with as accurate a 

 finish as though they had been joined by a car- 

 penter's tools and to think, as my eye surveys 

 the smoking soil thus prepared, how mother 

 earth always delights in bountifully rewarding 

 the careful husbandman, — that she invites a 

 liberal, intelligent and accurate cultivation, by 

 returning as compensation a greatly increased 

 crop. [Freo. Holbrook, in N. Eng. Farmer.] 



mathematics will show you that a coulter set 

 beveling to the land, an inclined landside to 

 the plow, and a concave lined monldboard, all 

 contribute to facilitate the laying of flat furrows, 

 and thai it would be difficult to drop the edges 

 down accurately beside each other without these 

 leveral provisions. The plow best adapted to 

 clay and other heavy or moist soils, cuts rectan- 

 gular furrows and lays them at an inclination of 

 45 deg. to the horizon. Your mathematics will 

 show you that this is the best posttion for the 

 furrows of such soils to be placed in. It can be 

 undeniably demonstrated that none but rectan- 

 gular furrows, whose depth is to their width as 

 two is to three, can be laid at an inclination oj 

 45 deg\ present in their projecting angles a 

 greater surface of soil to the ameliorating in- 



LEXINGTON AND LECOMTE. 



The following description of these celebrated 

 race horses is taken from an article in a recent 

 number of the New York Spirit of the Times^ 

 written by a friend of the latter horse, and not a 

 friend to the former. All must read with some 

 allowance for particulars: 



Lexington was bred by Dr. Warfield, near 

 Lexington, Kentucky ; he was got by Boston 

 ou: of Alice Corneal by imported Safedon. He 

 et mds about 15 hands 3 inches in height, and is 

 of good length. He is a rich bay, much marked 

 with white on all his legs, in the face, and in one 

 eye. He is the first wail-eyed horse we ever 

 saw that had weak eyes. Without any very ex- 

 cellent point, he has no bsd one, but is a remark- 

 ably even made horse, with that justness of pro- 

 portion and admirable adaptation of one part to 

 another that gives assurance uf an easy work- 



