AMERICAN AGRIC H J JURIST 
Farm, Grarden, a,ncL HEonseliold. 
"AtHClOPLTCKE IS TUB MOST HEALTHFUL, UOST USEFUL, AND MOST Mil'.l.r KlU'LOVUEMT OF HAX."— Wuata 
orange jvod company, ) ESTABLISHED IN 1842. ( M - 50 PER ANTOM . IN advance. 
PoausHBBa and proprietors. >• 1 SINGLE NUMBEK, 15 CENTS. 
OtHce, 245 BROiDHAV. ) Published also in German at $1. SO a Year. (-ICopiesfor $5 ; lOfor $13;30ormore, $leacl>. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in February. 1ST4, by the Orange Judd Company, at the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
VOLUME XXXIII. —No. 8. 
NEW YORK, MARCH. 1874. 
NEW SERIES— No. 326. 
PLOWING SOD. — Drown a»i Enyravetl for the American AgrlmH 
Tin; manurial value of a sod plowed beneath 
the surface very much depends upon the man- 
ner in which it is turned under. If the furrow 
id turned in a continuous strip unbroken and 
made to top upon the preceding furrow, as it 
appears in the above engraving, the utmost 
value of the sod is secured. For it is o lly as 
Comes decomposed and furnishes food for 
the succeeding crop that it is of any value. 
H the furrow is irregularly turned and broken 
into fragments a large portion of the sod is oh- 
buried ; it simply dries upon the surface and 
remains useless. Besides a furrow so turned 
furnishes i poor seed-bed becausa it is not . 
pact and tolid On the contrary, a property 
turned sod forms an excellent seed-bed. The 
surface of the field when plowed forms a suc- 
cession of ridges of soil exactly parallel with 
each other. When these ridges are harrowed 
down the sod beneath is not torn up, but is 
evenly covered with a fine layer of soil just 
I ient in depth to form a seed-bed, beneath 
which there is stored every particle of the sod 
in the best condition to furnish food for the 
young plants? the roots of which penetrate the 
soil exactly where their food llss. Thft 
parent when the position of the furrow slices, 
.is above shown, is observed. 
TJnfortunaU iy we possess few plows that are 
He of turning such a furrow *s is here 
described, The mold-boards of our plows are 
in general too short to turn a perfectly un- 
broken furrow. The better farming of our 
neighbors, the Caua i: ins, md the English 
farmers, is to somo extent due to the extreme 
care with which they plow, especially sod 
land. With us the yield of corn depends 
greatly upon the manner in which the sod is 
plowed, and the kind of plow we use becomes 
a very important consideration. The plow 
hown in tb i in i iving is an iron beam Eug- 
ine, of the Scotch pattern, having a share 
about four feet long. Its great length enables 
it to turn the furrows with perfect regularity, 
leaving the soil in the best condition. , 
