48 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Feb. 
much good. So much dissatisfaction is expressed 
from many quarters, about the profit of agricul¬ 
ture being altogether inadequate to the labor, that 
we would gladly see where the fault is, and have 
it corrected if possible. Our own humble opinion 
is, and always has been, that we hold the power 
in our own hands to rectify all the difficulties, pro¬ 
viding we use it properly. The nineteenth centu¬ 
ry has brought changes to all classes of men. 
Progress is the order of the day. The farmers 
can form no exception to this rule. A choice lies 
before them,—it is simply this, either to rise by 
education to their lawful inheritance, or to lose it 
through ignorance, and to remain forever mere 
“ hewers of wood and drawers of water.” H. C. 
W. Putnam Valley, N. Y., Dec . 17, 1852. 
Pall Plowing. 
We seldom look into an agricultural paper, in 
the later months of autumn, without seeing fall 
plowing recommended for spring crops. Believ¬ 
ing this advice to be, in most cases, injudicious, 
and founded upon erroneous principles of agricul¬ 
ture, I shall offer a few suggestions in support of 
this opinion. 
The great stimulus to every form of vegetation, 
so far as the soil is concerned, is admitted by all 
to be the quantity of organized matter in the soil, 
in a state of disorganization or decomposition. 
Now, irrigation and pulverization of the soil, pro¬ 
mote the disorganization of those organic elements, 
and render them active for the development and 
support of vegetation; and if there be no crop 
upon the land to receive that stimulus, or if the 
surface of the land be not in some way protected, 
so as to prevent the escape of those fertilizing ele¬ 
ments, rendered gaseous by the process of decom¬ 
position, they are, in a great measure, evaporated 
and utterly lost to the soil. Hence, land is im¬ 
poverished nearly, if not quite as much, by fall 
plowing, preparatory to a spring crop, as though 
a crop had actually been taken from it without any 
return. 
Land may, perhaps, be tilled a little earlier in 
the spring for the fall plowing, but, in Ohio at 
least, it can be tilled early enough for corn, spring 
wheat, oats, &c., without this impoverishing pre¬ 
parative. At any rate, where autumn plowing 
facilitates earty culture, under-draining would be 
far more beneficial, and not open to the serious ob¬ 
jection which we urge against the measure under 
discussion. 
It is thought, by most of the advocates of fall 
plowing, that it destroys the cut-worm, so injuri¬ 
ous. sometimes, to the corn crop. But this, I 
think, is questionable. Though the worms be ex¬ 
posed to the action of the elements, yet I submit 
the inquiry, how long would it take them to pen¬ 
etrate again beyond the reach of frosts? And 
would not their unerring instinct prompt them 
to avail themselves of this sure protection? Be 
this as it may, in reference to the cut-worm, one 
thing is certain, and many farmers have experi¬ 
mentally learned the fact, that fall plowing injures 
the soil as effectually as it does the worms. 
It is said that fall plowing renders the land much 
easier tilled the coming spring ,• this, in reference to 
some soils, is doubtless true, and is the only real 
advantage the system possesses; and this certain¬ 
ly ought not to weigh against the attending evils. 
O. C. Gibbs, M. D. Perry, Lake Co., Ohio. 
Making and Saving Manure. 
Mr. Tucker— A great deal is said and written 
now a-days, about making and saving manure—a 
subject in which every man who has an acre of 
ground to till, is more or less interested. And as 
manure is truly the sheet-anchor of the farmer's 
success, it becomes an important question with 
him, how to get the most of it. 
Being well satisfied with the result of several 
years practice in manufacturing my horse manure 
and litter, into good, first quality of manure, I 
thought I would communicate my experience to 
you, that you might lay it before your readers if 
you should think it best. 
In the first place, let me say that my hogs are 
confined to the pen, and a small yard in the rear 
of it, nearly the whole year round, (my breeding 
sows only being allowed to range in winter.) My 
horse barn stands adjoining the pen and one side 
of the yard. The manure from the horse stable 
is thrown directly into the hog-yard. The hogs 
are allowed the liberty of the yard, and so the 
horse and hog manure, and the litter of both, go 
together. The yard has been cleared so often, 
that the earth has been taken out more than a foot 
deep, and it will hold water like a dish; and the 
water that falls into the yard, with the urine of 
the animals, keep it well saturated most of the 
time. Occasionally we scatter a few quarts of corn 
over the yard, and the whole mass will soon be 
turned up-side-down by the industrious pigs; and 
in this way I can have it turned just when I wish. 
The whole is allowed to remain in the yard 
through the summer, and in the fall I find it all 
rich and rotten manure. The horse manure, 
which otherwise heats and dries so much, and by 
evaporation loses half its fertilizing properties, 
without a great deal of extra labor is bestowed 
upon it, is now thoroughly mixed with the hog 
manure, and all i3 improved thereby. 
By a liberal supply of bedding to both horses 
