THE CULTIVATOR. 
69 
ought barely to meet each other in the centre of it.* As ridges are cal¬ 
culated to produce artificial droughts, the least possible declivity is best, 
especially as the under drams formed by the furrow slices, together with 
the clearing out lurrows, will he found sufficient to run of! the superflu¬ 
ous moisture. After the ridges have been formed, the roller should be 
used to sink those parts of the furrow slices that, by lying hollow, are 
raised above the rest. When this has been done, the seams between the 
furrow slices ought to lie w ell closed with the tined harrow. It the sod 
he very compact, (which generally lappens in retentive lays,) a much 
better prepaiation tor plant ng is obtained, by running the hoe harrow 
once or twice through the soil, before the tined ha; row is used The 
seams between the lurrow slices will also be much better closed by this 
practice, as more loose earth will be obtained. 
Care should be taken to keep the cleaning out furrows open during the 
cultivation of the crop This may be done hv the plough going up and 
down them, in the same trai t, unless the excess ot moisture rtnder it 
necessaiy to preseive their original width. As the inequality in the sur¬ 
face will often prevent the moisture from running fiom one end to the 
other ol the lurrow slices, it should, in that case, meet w ith no obstacle 
that would prevent its escape at the sides of the ridges, into the clean¬ 
ing out furrows, f 
In the cultivation for the small grain that follows the fallow crop, care 
should be taken to order the course of the hoe and tined harrows, in that 
way best calculated to reduce the ridges as near to the lonn of tiat beds, 
as can oe done by the hariow going lengthwise of the furrows : as when 
I shall hereafter describe the proper cultivation for wheat sown in the fall, 
it will clearly appear, that if the cleaning out or water lurrows are not 
wider apart than half a perch, this crop will not sutler, when sown on 
flat beds; even if the soil is not only retentive ot moisture, but also spouty 
or springy to a considerable degree. It is evident, that the rotundity of 
ridges is very injurious, unless the spring and summer happen to be unu¬ 
sually dripping ; and quite as obvious that the sun cannot act equally on 
every part of them. 
I am well aware, that ridges of not half this width have been used and 
recommended by enlightened cultivators. It, however, should be recol¬ 
lected that these gentlemen pursued a cultivation calculated uselessly to 
waste the animal and vegetable matter contained in the soil The latter, 
before it sin«s deep into decay, has a tendency to keep the soil open, by 
separating its parts, even when it is only mixed through it; but this is far 
better effected by forming under drains with the furrow slices, well stored 
with vegetation. 
If the grounds be not laid down in grass, to he continued for two or 
more years, after one crop of grain is sown on them, red clover should 
be sown w ith the small grain that followed tile lallow crop. This should 
be mowed but once the ensuing year, and the second crop turned under 
wheat, sown in the fall. In forming the flat beds for this crop, in grounds 
which have been ridged up, the ploughing ought to commence at the 
former cleaning out furrows. In this ca-e, the water lurrows will be 
formed in the middle of the former ridges or beds. Care should, howe¬ 
ver, be taken to put tile two first furrows very closely together, or the 
beds will be lowest in the middle, which would be very injurious to the 
crop. The wa'er furrows for this crop should also be well regulated, 
and properly cleaned out. As the ploughing for every succeeding round 
of crops will commence at the water furrows formed for the last culti¬ 
vated crop, every tallow crop after the first may be grown on beds pei- 
lectly flat, or with a little rotundity, if this should be considered best. 
The under drains formed by the furrow slices will not continue open. 
Ions, alter the cultivated crop sown on the clover lay is removed. Neither 
should they, for the cleaning out furrows will be found sufficient to carry 
off the superfluous moisture from these grasses ; a^ they require much 
more of it than cultivated crops. Hence it is that dripping climates are 
considered the best for grass, and that crops of small grain, when sown 
in the Call, do not generally succeed well in such climates, unless proper 
provision he made to run off the excess of moisture. 
Here I wish the reader to observe, that the level cultivation means 
nothing more or less, than that, after the crops have been planted, all 
ridging, hilling, or moulding up should cease. 
The injury done by hilling , ridging, aud moulding up plants is ex¬ 
plained. as are also the advantages derived from a level and very su¬ 
perficial cultivation. 
Hilling, ridging, and moulding up plants, must have originated in bar¬ 
barism, or but a few removes from it ; like the practice of planting fruit 
trees as though they were fence posts. The latter practice, however, 
has been abandoned by enlightened cultivators, and the former will share 
the same fate, when nature and reason are harmonized in the practice ol 
husbandry. Hilling, ridging, and moulding up plants ha e been the too 
general practice of the world from time immemorial. It is, however, as 
* See Low’s directions for the bust method. 
f After very heavy rains, the plants standing in hollow parts of the field 
are sometimes very much injured, unless slight drains are formed by the hand 
hoe across the ridge where the water remains stagnant. 
much opposed to reason and observation, as it is to the economy of na¬ 
ture, and these ought lo govern all our agricultural pursuits. 
When the grounds have been properly prepared lor planting, no possi¬ 
ble good can arise from this inconsidera e practice; except wnen applied to 
celery, or other plants, which habit has rendered more palatable when 
blanched. The evils arising fiom it, however, are many an I great: it 
compels the plants to form new' sets of roots, so often as ihey happen to 
he ridged or hilled up. This is done at the expense of those already 
formed, as the roots of plants cease to perforin their propel functions 
when buried too deep within the soil : thus the efforts of nature are di¬ 
verted by the lolly of man, to useless and very injuiious purposes, instead 
of being applied to the growth and maturity of the crop. 
If the soil be too thin and weak, or the habits of the plants too delicate 
to form repeated sets of roots readily, vegetation languishes still more, 
and the injury is greater. Hilling and ridging up plants, form furrows or 
gutters, exactly calculated to carry off the rains, and produce artificial 
droughts; yet, so infatuating are long established practices, that the very 
obvious effects produced by them pass unregarded. Even sandy soils, 
which pait with moisture too freely, under the best system of manage¬ 
ment that can be devised, are generally cultivated in this way. This very 
inconsiderate practice turns up the grass roots and dung, (if the latter has 
been applied,) and exposes them to the very injurious effects of the sun, 
wind, and rain: consequently scatters much of the nutriment in the air, 
which should he secured lor the crops and improvement of Ihe soil. Still 
we arc told, that this is the proper way to “subdue the sod.” This is 
not all, for the openings made by ridging up the plants, may be justly con¬ 
sidered as main drains, communicating with innumeiahle avenues running 
jin every direction through the ground, from which the moisture and con- 
j fined air escape; and with them, the nutriment contained in the enrich¬ 
ing matter buiied in the soil. This checks fermentation and decomposi¬ 
tion, and with them the exciting and nutritive principles arising there¬ 
from. In fact, hilling and ridging up plants maybe justly considered, 
as in direct opposition to nature and reason, and of consequence to good 
husbandly. Still it has remained in general practice, except where the 
intervals between the plants have been so limited, that man with all his 
ingenuity, could not devise means lo effect the ruinous purpose, as in 
narrow drilled wheat, or turnips sown broad-cast, &c. 
The level cultivation which has been lecommended should be only suf¬ 
ficiently deep to extirpate weeds. The less the open, mellow, artificial 
bed prepared for the growth of the plants is disturbed, the better it is cal¬ 
culated to promote vegetation : also, to secure the liches contained in it 
for the following crops and the improvement of the so l. The skim, with 
a proper rake attached to the hinder part of it, will effect this purpose in 
very narrow intervals, and the hoe harrow, with the tined ha row fol¬ 
lowing it, in wider, with much less la'mr than the common plough, ex¬ 
cept where stones, and stumps with superficial roots abound. There the 
shovel plough, (with a share but lit tie more pointed than on e-half of a 
circle,) should be introduced, until a better tool has been invented for 
this purpose. 
The common plough cuts off, laps over, and mangles the roots of Ihe 
plants in ridging them up. Although he soil is not diminished hy this in¬ 
considerate practice, Ihe roots of the plants are confined in heaped up 
ridges. This compels them to take such unnatural directions that their 
prosperity is greatly abridged , particularly in narrow intervals, and in 
these the injury is most observable. 
When this instrument is used for ploughing from and to plants, the 
roots on the sides of them next to the intervals are cut off. The gentle¬ 
men who recommended this practice must have seen its injurious effects 
by the paler complexion and very slow growth of the plants, until they 
recovered from the very manifest injury done to them by this truly barba¬ 
rous operation. 
If they had recommended the tops to he out off at the same time, uni¬ 
formity would have been better preserved, with the additional advantage 
that might be derived from a new set of tops as well as roots. The sub. 
ject is really too ludicrous to be treated seriously. Still, gentlemen of 
great talents have recommended this practice : however, nature, reason, 
and practice united, clearly determine that the less plants are injured in 
rhe cultivation, the better : provided the cultivation be equally good ; and 
it may be tar better. Repeated ploughing and harrowing pulverize Ihe 
soil, and leave it quite open and mellow. It, however, too soon, be¬ 
comes compact, in consequence of the loss of the animal and vegetable 
matter exposed to useless waste by this injudicious practice, unless the 
soil be so rich as not to be materially affi cted by this very inconsiderate 
waste. U hereas, the fermentation of the animal and vegetable matter, 
when closely confined under the soil, will keep it continually open and 
mellow, for the ready admission of the roots of the plants. 
We are told that cutting the roots increases the number of them, and 
that this multiplication of the roots greatly promotes the growth and pros¬ 
perity ol the plants. No question but that moie branches w ill spring out 
trorn the stubs, after the roots have been cut off. It should, however, 
ie recollected, that nature has formed the roots exactly to suit the econo¬ 
my ol' the plants, and that no possible good, but much evil, must arise 
from the ill judged attempts of man to improve the formation of them: 
