<; • . v '.\ \v . 
SEPT.2S 
loose and mellow. There are plows made with 
long, spreading mold-boards, which turn the 
furrow-slice slowly and press it hard up against 
the preceding one and pack it closely; others 
with short, sharply-curved mold-boards, turn 
the furrow quickly, and break up the soil more 
thoroughly. The former are preferred by Eng¬ 
lish and Scotch plowmen ; the latter are favored 
in America and for our dryer climate are prefer¬ 
able, giving a loose, open surface with a com¬ 
pact bottom under it. This kind of plowing is 
known as lap-furrows, and is suitable for fall 
crops or for fall plowing for spring crops. 
For spring plowing, especially for corn, flat 
furrows are generally made.f These flat fur- 
rowB are cat of Bucb a thickness and width that 
they arc not left staudiug partly upon edge as 
the lap-furrows, but one is reversed in the fur¬ 
row left by the plowing of the former one. To 
do this perfectly, or indeed at all well, the slices 
must be of even width and, unless the furrows 
are kept straight, it is obvious that this cannot 
be done. In short, it is clearly seen that if the 
plow is not carried at an even depth and the fnr¬ 
rows are not' kept straight, the work cannot be 
well done, as there must be places left un¬ 
plowed ; furrow slices not turned completely; 
gaps left between them into which the seed 
falls and is lost, being covered too deeply; and 
that when the ground is harrowed, the sods, 
being loose, and not properly laid and held down 
by the succeeding shoes, are torn up and left 
upon the surface. In tinishing the open furrows 
between the lands, the plow should be run back 
and forth to mellow the soil, and no part of it 
should be left unplowed. These are frequently 
left as shown at tig. 7, when they should be fin¬ 
ished as at fig. 8. 
matches in which famcrs’ boys could show 
their skill with their plows and teams. It would 
tend to very much better plowing, to the grow¬ 
ing of better crops than are now produced, with 
less labor in cultivating them. That nobody can 
deny. 
ground has there been passed over by baulks, 
or by crooks in the furrow; or the plow has 
merely skimmed over the surface ; or Ihe fur¬ 
row slice has been lapped over too much; or it 
has not been cut off below the surface by per¬ 
mitting the plow to take too much land. Plow¬ 
ing is an art that requires both st udy Mid prac¬ 
tice for its proper performance; and mauy old 
farmers, all the young ones, and those who are 
not “ to the manner born,” w ho have taken to the 
farm either as an escape or a relief from other 
employments ; all these may well and profitably 
study the principles, and practice the methods 
of the art carefully and patiently. 
BURNED EARTH AND PEAT, 
The simple process of burning a thing in the 
usual way, is the readiest and most complete 
destruction of every valuable or injurious in¬ 
gredient in any article, and when it is desirable 
to get rid of a thing with tho least possible 
trouble, or to derive tho least benefit from it, 
th" quickest and most effectual way of doing so 
is to bury or burn it. In burning, the good and 
the bad are etberoalized and sent off into the 
atmosphere to gather in clouds and vapors, and 
return to tho earth in snow and rain as ammo¬ 
nia or other life-giving ingredients of vege¬ 
tation. 
But when all these ingredients which are thus 
thrown off in open burning, can he retained or 
stored up, the best fertilizing elements are still 
retained, and although the residue is not as val¬ 
uable as if the Bame article bad been properly 
decomposed and all its ingredients saved, still 
for many purposes tho closed burning process is 
tho most desirable. Such is tho case with 
burned peat or muck and earth, when wanted as 
absorbents or deodorizers. The great value of 
these when burned is that, besides retaining 
nearly all their value as fertilizers, they have 
added to them tho ingredients of the other ma¬ 
terials used in burnjug, and are the best deodo¬ 
rizers for coss-pools, stables, hen-houses, and 
also the best absorbents of liquids, which the 
farmer can easily obtain. 
But the burning process must be carefully at¬ 
tended to, and consists in covering any con¬ 
venient refuse matter completely, after the man¬ 
ner of a charcoal heap, with peat or dirt, and 
letting it burn slowly. Brush, weeds, old de¬ 
cayed timber, corn stalks, or any other material 
that can ho easily obtained, and which, from its 
coarse charaoter, cannot conveniently be com¬ 
posted in the manure-heap, may be thus profit¬ 
ably treated. In the operation, the earthy 
covering will absorb the fertilizing ingredients 
of the smoke and ashes of the refuse heap. No 
smoke should, therefore, bo allowed to escape, 
exoept that passing through tfce muck or earth, 
and these should be tbwoi^gbhfpulvf-rized and 
kept dry, as they are then Aiost effective, and can 
be most conveniently apply d- Tho muck, peat, 
or oarth is not entirely reduced to ashes, nor is 
it desirable that it should be, hut it is thorough¬ 
ly dried, while all its souruesB is removed and 
enough potush added to render it more valuable 
in the compoBt heap. In this condition it is an 
excellent absorbent of liquid manure in the 
stable or cess pool, and a first-class deodorizer 
in water-closets, hog-pens, or ponltry-houses; 
and, in fact, is useful wherever any bad odors 
arise, or where liquid manures would otherwise 
he wasted. A barn yard having a water-tight 
basin in tho center, will, if this burned dirt is 
regularly added to the manure-heap, and re¬ 
moved as often as saturated, furnish an immense 
supply of the best manure. 
reer without having first served a protraotea ap¬ 
prenticeship under a competent and skillful 
workman. Now, there is as much to be learnt 
about farming iia there is about any of the me¬ 
chanical trades. The better plan is for the 
young man who would excel a i a farmer, to 
place himself for a few years under the instruc¬ 
tion of a first-class, practical farmer. In this 
way he will be able to learn just how every 
operation on the farm is, or should be, per¬ 
formed. At the same time he will acquire skill 
to perform these operations himself. 
Our agricultural colleges are, or should be, 
the best places in the oountry for obtaining 
both a practical and theoretical knowledge of 
agriculture. Whether these institutions are 
doing all that the people have a right to expect 
of them, is a question that I do not intend to 
diBcnss at this time, but there is no doubt that 
any one of them will bo a great assistance u> 
anyone who is seekiog to qualify himself for 
the business of farming. Where a young man 
can avail himself of the opportunity to attend 
one of these institutions, he should do so by all 
means. But if this may not be done, the next 
best thing is, as I have stated, to serve under 
some first-class, practical farmer till the practi¬ 
cal farm work is thoroughly understood. 
"•’-"i.ED BE OF THE PRINCIPLES OF CORRECT FARMING. 
r vui practice without & knowledge of principles 
loads to a one-siaed, unsatisfactory course. Pro¬ 
vision should, therefore, be made for a thorough 
study of the principles on which correct farm 
practice is based. The yonug man who wiBheB 
to qualify himself for taking a high rank as a 
fanner, will find a great assistance in the agri¬ 
cultural periodicals of the country. These are 
largely made np of the writings of practical 
fanners, and hence oontain the ripest thoughts 
and latest results of the most successful fanners 
of tae country. Every young farmer should 
take and read, with care and close attention, one 
or more—I would say two or three—of these 
publications. Besides these, a small library of 
ohoice agricultural books should be procured 
and thoroughly studied. These should embrace 
works on soils, crops, fruit raising, entomology, 
agricultural chemistry, the breeding, raising 
and fattening of stock, meteorology and other 
kiodred subjects. Inasmuch as a large portion 
of farm work is now done with machinery, the 
study of mechanics is an essential part of a good 
farm education. 
Let any young man who La asking the question 
that heads this article, pursue faithfully and 
persistently the course here recommended, and, 
if he is a man of even mediocre ability, he will, in 
a few years, be alio to take rank with the most 
intelligent and successful farmers of the country. 
There are plows and plows, some good, some 
indifferent, and some actually bad; with the 
last of which an expert plowman must needs 
exert all his skill to make passable work. There 
are plows also which are intended for certain 
uses and which can only be made effective for 
those uses ; as, for instance, plows for lap fur¬ 
rows and for fiat furrows in sod; for stubble 
ground, for side-hill plowing, for broad, nar¬ 
row, deep and shallow plowing, so that few 
farmers can do all their work with one plow. 
There aro plows whioh in the hands of a good 
workman can be made to do all the different 
kinds of plowing in a passable manner, but just 
as an expert cutler or barber could make a jack¬ 
knife fit to shave a beard with, so with such a 
plow there are needed the thorough knowledge 
of what should be done and the still to doit: 
of this, however, there is not time to speak: 
the present objeot is to refer to the different 
kinds of plowing and the methods of managing 
the plow to perform these. 
To make a straight furrow, tho plow should 
be firmly held, the plowman standing well up to 
the handles, and the handles kept level. The 
plowman should also keep his ey6 ahead of the 
team occasionally, and watch the furrow-slice as 
it is cut by tho coulter or the fin of the share. 
The moment any divergence from a straight line 
is seen, the young plowman should stop the 
team, unless he can rectify the error without, 
and start again properly, backing his plow rf 
needed. If the plow cuts too wide or too narrow, 
this may be remedied by changing tho draft- 
point to the left or right, as the case may be. 
The most convenient way of doing this is by 
using a clevis iu which there aro adjusting holes 
for this purpose as well as lor regulating the 
depth. But for temporary adjustment, the plow 
may bo made to cut wider by carrying the han¬ 
dles to the right hand, and narrower, by carrying 
them to the left from an even position. This 
may do to correct a little divergence from a 
straight line in the former farrow, hut should he 
done only by practiced plowmen. If a furrow 
will get crooked in spite of all that can be done 
by a beginner, it will bo bettor for him to go 
through the last furrow once more aud straighten 
it; and then go on afresh. But it is much 
easier to get the furrows more crooked with 
every bout than to got them straight, once tho 
line is departed from. 
The depth of the farrow may be changed by 
altering the position of the clevis up or down 
in the notches at the plow beam; by changing 
tho length of the trace chains or, ternporari y 
only, by raising or bearing upon the plow 
handles. Tho shorter the traces the slialluwer 
the plow will run, aud as they aro lengthened 
the plow will run deeper. If the poiut of the 
share is worn round on tho uudor side, the ten¬ 
dency is for tho plow to run shallow, or even out 
of tho ground. The point should be kept sharp 
for this reason. Movable and reversible points 
are made, for one plow at least, which are very 
useful in this respect; by changing them each 
day very even plowing may be done. 
Plowing sod is the most important, because 
the ground must not only be turned over, but 
the sod must be covered, the slice must also be 
turned over evenly, of an even thickness aud 
width. This cannot bo done unless the first 
furrows arc made straight and the succeeding 
furrows are kept straight. The first furrows, 
too, must not be simply turned over, as is usual, 
upon the untouched sod, else there will be a 
ridge left therewith a hard bottom under it and 
much ground will bo left in bad condition for the 
crop. In laying out the lands for plowing, the 
first furrows should be made straight by the 
use of sighting poles; experts uiay do without 
these, but no young plowman oan or should. 
These are placed about 20 feet apart. The first 
laud should be laid out parallel with one side of 
the field and the others Bhould be measured 
from this. The field would then be laid out 
for plowing aB shown at fig. 1. The dots rep¬ 
resent the sighting poles with the back furrows, 
44 feet apart, plowed across tho field. 
LAY IN YOUR WOOD 
[The following article was received from Mr. 
Minek a few months previous to his death, and 
held over that it might bo more timely.— Eds ] 
No good farmer will neglect to cut wood the 
corning winter, to bo used a year hence, as it is 
poor management to burn green wood ; and it is 
always best to have your wood for jour family’s 
use to bo under cover, and so connected with 
the house that it can he got at from the kitchen 
without going out of doors. If your wood- 
kouso is of ample size, it will afford you a place 
to do many little jobs in rainy weather, and your 
boys oan split the wood under it, and pile it up 
on wet days. When I see a farmer’s wood pile 
at his kitchen door—a lot of logs to be cut as 
tho wood is wautod, and green at that, I know 
his entire character; and 1 might write it out 
thus: This man was brought up from boy¬ 
hood to be slack in his farm dutieB, doing no¬ 
thing but what ho could nut a ell omit. He has 
no idea of there being any benefit iu " driving 
things'' and ho takoB tho world " easy.” Ho 
denies that there has been any progress made in 
farming since he was & boy ; consequently, hiB 
farm, buildings, and general surroundings have 
an auoient look, just as farms had fifty years 
ago; aud his children are growing up to be 
"chips of tho old blook,” aud his hoys will, 
probably, die as their father will, with a pile of 
yretn wood at their doors. 
If a farmer haH no other reason why ho 
Bhould provide dry wood for his family, except 
that it is cheaper than green wood, as regards 
the heat given out, that alone ought to be suffi¬ 
cient inducement for him to provide it; but the 
comfort of sitting by a dry-wood fire in winter 
of itself ought to stimulate every fanner to have 
an ample-sized wood-house, filled with a year’s 
Bnpply of wood, aud cut of the size anitable for 
use, as having to cut and split wood daily, as it 
iB used, is a way of managing fuel that no good 
farmer should tolerate. 
Thoso aro placed at measured distances ; two 
being placed at tho beginning, 44 feet apart, to 
make 22 pace lands, and each being moved al¬ 
ternately to save labor. Those at the farther 
end of the furrow are moved before the return¬ 
ing bout is made in roadmens for the next fur¬ 
row. 
The back furrows for each land are all made 
before the lands are plowed. They are made as 
follows: a thin furrow slice is first turned out¬ 
wards, and in coming hack, another is thrown 
from that alHO outwards, as shown at fig. 2. Then 
a deeper furrow is made, which not only re¬ 
places the first sod turned, but throws a slice 
upon it, ieaviog it as shown at fig. 3. Tho back 
furrow theu consists of two thin sodB face to 
face, with the earth broken, loosened, aud pul¬ 
verized. 
THE SCIENCE AND PRACTICE OF PLOWING 
BY A JEBSKY FARMER 
The object of pic.wing is to prepare a fit bed 
to receive the seed aud for tho proper growth 
of the roots. These include every purpose for 
which a farmer uses a plow. As has been ex¬ 
plained iu a former article upon the culture of 
wheat, a proper condition of the seed-bed ia 
very important, and absolntely necessary for 
safety aud thrift of the young plants. This 
condition should be such as to secure a certain 
mol lowness and looseness of texture, and yet a 
ertain compactness of the soil in every portion 
a field. If it is necessary anywhere, it is aB 
'•eedful everywhere. Upon tnis evenness of 
Weparation, more depends than is generally 
■apposed. It is precisely here that failure is 
most frequent Perhaps there is no other coun¬ 
try where agriculture is practised as an art, 
where less attention is given to perfection in 
plowing or where there is less system iu the me¬ 
chanical preparation of the soil for the seed. 
One very rarely sees a straight, even furrow; 
or a plowed field in which a stick oan easily be 
thrust to the depth of tho furrow all over the 
field, When tested in this way, there will usu¬ 
ally bo found, at least onco out of three times, 
a place where tho stick will not penetrate more 
than an inch or two instoud of five or six inches. 
These hard spots have not been plowed. The 
To become an adept in plowing, as every young 
farmer should aim to be, practice is required. 
When tho writer began to plow, he began in a 
stubble field, with the sighting poles, until ho 
could turn a straight furrow across the field. 
It was only iv few days until a straight furrow 
could I e made with the use of ono polo. Some 
distant object, a tree or a fence post, answering 
the purpose of the other. In less than a week’B 
practice it was perfectly easy to manage the plow 
so as to make a furrow so straight that a rabbit 
or a crow could be seen from ono end to the 
other, and that will do for all practical purposes. 
It is to ho regretted that we cannot have plowing 
+ The first furrows are made.as before described, 
by UrM, piuwinK shallow slice* outwards, then rev.-rs- 
lr,K them with a deeper furrow and then pioeeedlnK. 
This Is shown at lltf. 0. The lands are laid out as be¬ 
fore described. 
The plowing then continues, leaving the fur¬ 
rows as shown at fig. 4, s ’ The way in which the 
earth is loosened iu tho prooesg of turning the 
sod is shown at fig. 5. First the slice is cut off 
by the plow-share; it is then raised, and as the 
mold-board turns it, it is curved and bent, and 
the loose side, being the outer curve, ia spread 
and broken up, so that when it falls over, it is 
* It isaRood practice to loaveas'rip shown by 
don ed lines, hit. 1 -entirely round the Odd unplowed, 
i,mII the lamia are tin abed. The width of the81 1 Ip 
tg such hhwii. g\V« headlands wldo "tumuli to turn 
unon. Tlila is about 10 io 12feet. When the muds 
ure all plowed, tills strip Is then plowed by gulml 
around the held finlsbiuK at the Kate, where the 
lust land should have been completed. 
