AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
Farm, GrarcLen, and. Honseliold. 
“AfilUOULTUBE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AN1> MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAX.”- Washington. 
yk 
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orange ji»i> company, ) ESTABLISHED IN 1842, ( $1 - 50 FEB ™ advance. 
PUBLISHERS AND PROPRIETORS. > -( SINGLE NUMBEB, 15 CENTS. 
Office, 245 BROADWAY, J Published also in German at $1.50 a Year. ( ACopiesfor $5 ; lOfor $12; 20 ormore, $leach. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in February, 1S74, 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. 
P Xj 0 W I N G SOD. — Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
The mammal value of a sod plowed beneath 
the surface very much depends upon the man¬ 
ner in which it is turned under. If the furrow 
is turned in a continuous strip unbroken and 
made to lap upon the preceding furrow, as it 
appears in the above engraving, the utmost 
value of the sod is secured. For it is only as 
it becomes decomposed and furnishes food for 
the succeeding crop that it is of any value. 
If the furrow is irregularly turned and broken 
into fragments a large portion of the sod is un¬ 
buried ; it simply dries upon the surface and 
remains useless. Besides a furrow so turned 
furnishes a poor seed-bed because it is not com¬ 
pact and solid. Oh the contrary, a properly 
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 tom up, hut is 
evenly covered with a fine layer of soil just 
sufficient 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 lies. This is ap¬ 
parent when the position of the furrow slices, 
as above shown, is observed. 
Unfortunately we possess few plows that are 
capable of turning such a furrow as is here 
described. The mold-boards of our plows are 
in general too short to turn a perfectly4in- 
broken furrow. The better farming of our 
neighbors, the Canadians, and the English 
farmers, is to some 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 
shown in the engraving is an iron beam Eng¬ 
lish one, 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. 
