212 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
“ stirring ” {rehinatio)^ as it is called, “ when the seeds have sprung 
up after the fallow plowing,” {cum terra pullulaverit post warec- 
tum.) This, it is said, should not be too deep — only enough to de¬ 
stroy the weeds. In the autumn manure is spread upon the land, 
and it is plowed a third time for the crop — this time two fingers’- 
breadths deeper, with broad and close furrows. Without being ac¬ 
quainted with the laws of chemistry, these men knew by experience 
that the ground, when lying fallow and open, absorbed valuable in¬ 
gredients from the rain and the air. 
After the winter crop was harvested, the land was thrown open 
for grazing, until the next crop was to be put in. This stubble pas¬ 
ture amounted to more than might seem, for to say nothing of the 
green baulks of turf, which in one estate were estimated to 
amount to eighty acres, it was the custom, in reaping the grain, 
only to clip off the ears, leaving the straw standing; then they cut 
whatever stravv was needed for thatching and other purposes, and the 
cattle were turned into the field to feed upon the remainder. The 
next spring the summer crop was sown, and again, after this was 
harvested, the cattle were allowed to pasture upon the stubble un¬ 
til the following spring, when the plowing of the fallow commenced 
the preparation of the ground for the winter crop. 
The plowing was usually done with oxen, commonly eight to a 
team. Horses were used, but their labor was more expensive; 
moreover, with the imperfect drainage of the time, the labor of 
horses was not considered so well suited to heavy, muddy land. A 
writer of the fourteenth century* recommends using a pair of horses 
with a team of oxen, as being quite as efficient except in rocky land, 
and a good deal more economical. 
The yield was small. This same writer speaks of a threefold 
yield, as something unusual, but as certainly not remunerative. 
Allowing to the acre two bushels of seed, at 12d., and reckoning 
the three plowings at 18d., the harrowing at Id., weeding at Iqr., 
reaping at 5d., and teaming at Id., a yield of six bushels, he says, 
will be a dead loss of 3qr., unless some profit can be made out of 
the straw. This statement is corroborated bv the statistics collect- 
«/ 
ed by Prof, Rogers, in his History of Agriculture and Prices.f For 
seed, two bushels of wheat and rye go to the acre; four of barley 
and oats; and the yield ranged from twice to eight times the seed, 
t Vol I, p. 50, 
*Pleta, Book II, -TS, 2. 
