is 
THE farmer’s MANUAC.. 
true ; he knows that he should never turn his furrow 
wider than the plough-share will cut clean; but al- 
ways as much narrower, as the stiffness of the soil 
shall render necessary, to lay his furrows smooth 
and light, and free from clods ; in all such cases of 
narrow furrows, the extra expense of ploughing, will 
be saved in the expense of harrowing, with this ad- 
vantage to the crop, that the harrow pulverizes only 
the surface ; but the plough, when properly directed, 
renders the earth mellow, to the whole depth of the 
furrow. This again involves the question. How deep 
is best ? To this 1 shall reply particularly, as it has 
become one of the most important questions in field 
husbandry. When you turn in a stiff, or clover sward, 
for corn, or potatoes, let your plough cut to the depth 
of 8 or 10 inches, if the substratum is not an im- 
penetrable substance ; you will thus lay the founda- 
tion for a deep soil for ever, in your after tillage. 
Your corn, or potatoes, when planted, will lie below 
the dead earth raised from the bottoms of your fur- 
rows, and will strike their roots into the rich mould 
which you turned down from the surface. The sun, 
air, and rains, together with such manure as you may 
apply, either in the hill, or by way of top-dressings, 
about the hills, will all fertilize the dead earth so 
turned up, and render it food for plants. The frosts 
of the next winter will further improve this dead sur- 
face, and thus, by the next season, when commixed 
with the original mould, by a deep ploughing of the 
same depth, the whole will become a deep, rich, and 
fertile soil, and may ever afterward be ploughed to the 
same depth for the culture of any crops. The same 
is true, in a degree, of stubble grounds, ploughed, 
or ridged in in the summer, after harvest ; or of tur- 
nip ground fed by sheej), or of clover, or buck- wheat 
grounds, ploughed in, as fertilizing crops ; but where 
you plough your fallows for wheat, rye, oats, barley, 
or turnips, you will never succeed in deepening your 
soil below the natural mould, unless you have first 
