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Implements (Unfit for carrying such crops)

unfit for carrying such crops, must be cleaned less highly impregnated with alluvial compost, and brought into good order by frequent ploughings and harrowings during the summer months. To Conduct a Fallow.

Upon all clayey soils (and upon such only is a complete summer fallow necessary) the first ploughing ought to be given during the winter months, or as early in the spring as possible; which greatly promotes the rotting of the sward and stubble. This should be done by gathering up the ridge, which both lays the ground dry and rips up the furrows. As soon as seed-time is over, the ridge should be cloven down, preparatory to cross ploughing; and after lying a proper time, should be harrowed and rolled repeatedly, and the effect of which expels the poisonous substance contained in this kind of subsoil, and gives a fertility to the whole mass, more decisively permanent than would follow a heavy application of the best rotten dung.

Two sets of Ploughs required for perfect Tillage.

On clayey soils, where the ridges are so that the ground may be preserved in something like a dry condition, the plough used for tillage ought to have a mould-board considerably wider set than is required for light soils, in order that the furrow may be close cut below, and only turned over. The method of constructing the plough necessarily makes a heavier draught than every particle of quickens that the harrows have brought above, should be carefully picked off with the hand. It is then proper to ridge or gather it up immediately, which both lays the land in proper condition for meeting bad weather, and opens up any fast land that may have been missed in the furrows when the cross ploughing was given.

After this harrow, roll, and gather the root weeds again; and continue so doing till the field is perfectly clean. To Prepare the Ground.

The above object is most completely accomplished, when the ground is ploughed deep and equal, while the bottom of the furrow immediately above the subsoil is perfectly loosened and turned equally over with the part which constitutes the surface. In many places these properties are altogether neglected, the ground being ploughed in a shallow way, while the bottom of the ploughed land remains something like the teeth of a saw, having the under part of the furrow untouched, and consequently not removed by the action of the plough. While these things are suffered, the object of tillage is only partially gained. The food of plants can only be imperfectly procured; and the ground is drenched and injured by wetness; these ridges, or pieces of land, which are not cut, preventing a descent of the moisture from above to the open furrows left for carrying it off.

Where the seed-bed is prepared by one ploughing, the greatest care ought to be used in having it closely and equally performed. When two are given, they should be in opposite directions, so that any firm land left in the first may be cut up in the second ploughing. It is not profitable to plough twice one way, if it can be safely avoided.

Another important point towards procuring good tillage, is never to plough the land when in a wet state; because encouragement is thus given to the growth of weeds, while a sourness and adhesion is communicated to the ground, which is rarely got the better of till the operations of a summer fallow are again repeated.

All soils ought not to be wrought or ploughed in one manner. Each kind has its particular and appropriate qualities; and, therefore, each requires a particular and appropriate mode of tillage.

Ploughing, which is the capital operation of husbandry, ought, on these accounts, to be administered according to the nature of the soil which is to be operated upon, and not executed agreeably to one fixed and determined principle. On strong clays and loams, and on rich gravels and deep sands, the plough ought to go as deep as the cattle are able to work it; whereas, on thin clays and barren sands the benefit of deep ploughing is very questionable; especially when such are incumbent on a till bottom, or where the subsoil is of a yellow-ochre nature; such, when turned up, being little better than poison to the surface, unwould be the case were the mould-board placed differently; though if good and sufficient work be wanted, the necessity of constructing the imnecessity of constructing the implement in the way mentioned, is absolute and indispensable. The plough to be used on light soils, or on all soils that admit of what is technically called crown may be made much straighter below, and yet and furrow ploughing, be capable of executing the work in a perfect manner. On every farm, consisting of mixed soils, two sets of ploughs ought to be kept, otherwise proper work cannot be performed. All land ought to be ploughed with a shoulder, and the advantages of ploughing in this way are, that, if ploughed before winter, the surface is enabled to resist the winter rains, and afterwards present a face on which the harrows can make a proper impression, when the seed process is to be executed. This deserves particular attention when old grass fields are broken up; as, by neglecting it, the harrows are often unable to cover the seed. It is perfectly practicable to plough land with a tolerably broad furrow, say 10, 11, or 12 inches, and yet to plough it clean, provided the implement used is properly constructed; but, then, care must be taken that the furrow be of proportionate deepness, otherwise it will be laid on its back, instead of being deposited at an angle proper for undergoing the harrowing process.

The use of subsoilers is now common, to turn up the depth of the soil. In sandy earth, beneath a ten-inch furrow, a subsoiler may go ten inches deeper; but this is not easy or possible in all soils.

Implements of Husbandry. * No country in the world is better provided with implements for executing rural labor than Great Britain; and to this superiority may, in some measure, be attributed the increased and increasing perfection of agriculture over the whole island. American ingenuity has gone still further in the same direction. We have ploughs of all the different kinds that ever were constructed: as for wheel carriages, the variety is immense; whilst harrows, and other common implements, of various constructions and dimensions, are equally numerous. But it is in the articles more properly allied to machinery, that the superiority of American rural implements is most conspicuous.

Drills for sowing grain and small seeds with regularity, have been constructed upon scientific principles; and machines for separating grain from straw, have been invented, and brought to a degree of perfection which few people expected when these machines were first introduced.

The double Michigan plough is an important improvement on the old plough. Instead of a coulter it has a small plough attached to the beam in front of the other, which takes a slice from the sod, and makes cleaner work for the plough. Steam ploughs have also been invented. * See page 470.

The universal Sowing Machine.