THE SOUTHERN PLANTER: 



97 



lines marking the widths, and the cross-lines 

 indicating the proper points for the angles of 

 the furrows, it will be easy for the ploughman, 

 (or for any number of ploughs following each 

 other on the same cut,) to make even and equal 

 work, and to close at the outside lines, with 

 but little loss of labor in broken furrows. It 

 is obvious that the outside boundaries, whether 

 made by ditches, fences, or growing crops on 

 adjacent fields, can be ploughed more nearly 

 to, in this mode, than in any other whatever. 



The ploughs, and the depth of ploughing, 

 may be of any description suitable to the soil. 

 But, for the convenience of reference to effects, 

 I will suppose the operation and conditions to 

 be like my own. In that, the ploughs for 

 breaking up, whether in winter/Vo prepare 

 rough or grass land for corn, or in summer, to 

 prepare clover (or weed) land for wheat, are 

 drawn by four mules, and usually in easy 

 ground, cut and turn slices 7 to 8 inches deep, 

 and 12 to 14 inches wide- 

 First, let us consider the operation of the 

 ploughing, in reference to its great and usu- 

 ally sole object, that of thoroughly breaking, 

 loosening, subverting, and giving tilth to the 

 soil, for sufficient depth, and also burying and 

 covering the vegetable matter which stood on 

 the previous surface. 



The land is supposed (like mine) to have 

 been left (at the previous tillage,) in straight 

 and well-shaped broad and high beds — say 25 

 or 27i feet wide, and about 16 inches of differ- 

 ence of perpendicular height between the cen- 

 tre or crown of the bed, and the bottom of the 

 alley. The new ploughing will necessarily 

 cross the former ploughing, and the beds and 

 alleys, in every variety of direction. In part, 

 the furrows will run in precisely the same di- 

 rection with the beds and alleys — in part, they 

 will cross at right-angles — and elsewhere, they 

 will cross diagonally, at angles of every differ- 

 ent size. Before trial, I feared great difficulties, 

 and especially in ploughing across the beds at 

 right-angles. But, in practice, the difficulties 

 were much less than expected — and, on the 

 whole, less than belong to any other and usual 

 mode of ploughing. When ploughing directly 

 across the beds, it is true that the new furrow 

 is of very unequal depths — perhaps 10 inches 

 at the middle of the bed, and barely 1 to 2 

 inches when crossing the bottom of the deep 

 and narrow alley. But these very different 

 depths, if something more laborious to the 

 team, are more suitable to the requirements of 

 the soil in the extremes of thickness, made ar- 

 tificially by the former bedding. The deeper 

 ploughing under the crown of the bed is still 

 the more beneficial, because that place had 

 been broken but imperfectly, or not at all, by 

 the previous ploughings, which raised the bed, 

 and lapped the soil, without breaking it below, 

 at the crowns of the beds. In the alleys where 

 the new ploughing barely scraped, the sub-soil 

 had generally been previously reached, in 



deepening the alleys ; and no greater depth of 

 ploughing was needed, inasmuch as the beds 

 are to remain as they were before. When the 

 new ploughing is immediately across the ,old 

 beds, (or at right-angles,) the beds necessarily 

 there retain precisely their former position, 

 and, immediately after the new ploughing, ap- 

 pear even higher than before. In the alleys 

 there was so little cutting; and so little of other 

 earth thrown in, that there will be but little 

 earth to clean out, to leave these beds in better 

 shape, as well as in better tilth, than after any 

 former ploughing. 



The advantages of more easily and thorough- 

 ly breaking the ground, and the disadvantages 

 of throwing more of the ploughed soil into the 

 alleys, both increase as the direction is changed 

 to be diagonal — and from diagonal to coincid- 

 ing with the direction of the alleys. There 

 could be nothing of this disadvantage (worth 

 consideration) of throwing more earth into the 

 alleys, if every furrow was of equal depth, 

 whether in the highest or lowest places — or at 

 the crowns of the beds and in the alleys. In 

 that case, wherever any part of a furrow was 

 opened, it would be filled by the next cut fur- 

 row-slice, of precisely equal size. But in prac- 

 tice, the furrow-slices, are not of precisely equal 

 thickness whether cut at the crown, or the side 

 of the bed, and in the alley, ( — and they ought 

 not to be equal — ) and therefore the new flush 

 ploughing does operate slightly, to change for 

 the worse, the previous relative positions of the 

 beds. But this change, and damage, is less 

 than is usually made by the careless ploughing 

 of beds, in the same direction, and whether 

 with the design of raiding and preserving the 

 same beds, or cleaving and reversing them. — 

 After the flush ploughing described, and in 

 every direction, the former alleys are plainly 

 to be distinguished. And, at a proper time 

 and condition of the land, the running of a 

 two-horse plough up and down in each alley, 

 will sweep out cleanly all the loosed earth that 

 would absorb rain-water, and obstruct its dis- 

 charge, and leave each bed and alley in the 

 best designed shape and condition for surface 

 drainage. But this opening of the alleys can- 

 not be well done immediately after the plough- 

 ing of each cut, nor until rain shall have fallen, 

 and dried off, so that the loose and turfy earth 

 has been somewhat consolidated. In the inter- 

 val between the ploughing and the subsequent 

 opening of the former alleys, the only evil and 

 danger of the plan may occur, in the fall of so 

 much rain that it will be long before the then 

 water-glutted alleys will be fit for the plough; 

 and when, consequently, great damage will be 

 caused by this long water-soaking of the earth 

 in the alleys. Every care should be used to 

 prevent this evil. 



This manner of ploughing should be used 

 certainly for every winter ploughing, (to prepare 

 for corn,) and it may be for any other time when 

 the farmer is sure of being able to complete 



