are then hupped sharp round from you, and the furrow-slice is laid so as to rest, at the proper angle of 45°, upon a. Hupping the horses again sharp round from you, the furrow-slice c is also laid at the same angle upon the other side of a; but c and 6 should not approach each other so near as to cover a, but leave a space of about 3 or 4 inches between them, the object of which is to form a receptacle for the seed, which, were c and b to make a sharp angle, would slide down when sown, and leave the crown, the best part of the ridge, bare of seed. The ridges are ploughed in half-ridges to the open furrows d, which are finished with mould-furrowslices, but these are obtained with some difficulty, for want of soil. Twice-gathering-up is only practised in strong land and its object is to lift the mould above the cold and wet subsoil. On dry land no such expedient is required, nor on strong land drained. In fig. 26 the dotted line e represents the configuration of the ground before the second gathering-up was begun, and it may be seen that the open furrow at d is now deeper than it was with once gathering-up. 766. The mode of ploughing exactly opposite to twice-gathering-up is cleaving or throwing down. The open furrows of twice-gathered-up land constitute deep feerings, which are filled up with the slices obtained from the mould-furrows and furrow-brows of the adjoining ridges; and in order to fill them fully, the plough takes as deep a hold of these as it can. The furrow-slices are ploughed exactly the reverse way of twice-gathering-up, and in half-ridges. The effect of cleaving down is to bring the ground again to the level from which it had been elevated by the twice-gathering-up. The open furrows are left at the crowns, at a, fig. 26, the mould-furrows being seldom ploughed, cleaving down being usually practised to prepare the land for cross-ploughing in the spring. 767. But when clay land is cleaved down in winter, it is always so with gorefurrows, and these, with the open furrows, afford a convenient channel, at every halfridge, for the water to flow off to the ditches; and as twice-gathering-up is only practised on clay soils, and cleaving down Fig. 27. does the dotted line c, in fig. 28. Below a and b, fig. 27, are shown the former open furrows by the dotted line, as also does the dotted line below a, in fig. 28. In fig. 28, the ground upon which the furrow-slices rest is made somewhat rounded, to show the effect of twice-gathering it up. In strict practice, a ridge can only be cleaved after it has been twice gathered up, because it is scarcely correct to say that a ridge is cleaved down after one gathering-up from the flat, when it is, in fact, ploughed crown-and-furrow. With a strong furrow, a twice-gathered-up ridge can be made flat by one cleaving down. 768. What is called cross-ploughing, or the cross-furrow, derives its name from ploughing right across the furrow-slices in the ridges, in whatever form these may have been formerly ploughed. Its object is to cut the furrow-slices into small pieces, so that the land may be easily pulverised. It is commonly executed in the spring, and should never be attempted in winter; because the position of the furrow-slices would retain the rain or melting snow, and render the land wet. But, even if cross-furrowing were executed quickly in winter, and the weather would allow the soil to be safely ridged up, the soil would become so consolidated during winter that it would have to be again cross-furrowed in the spring before it could be rendered friable. The object of cross-furrowing being to pulverise land, it is practised on every species of soil, and exactly in the same manner. It is ploughed in divisions, the feerings being made at 30 yards asunder, and ploughed in the same manner as two-out-and-two-in, fig. 24; that is, by going round the feerings, hupping the horses constantly from you, until about half the division is ploughed, and then hieing them towards you, still laying the furrowslices towards the feerings, until the division is ploughed. In cross-ploughing, however, the open furrow is never left open, and is closed with two or three of the last furrow-slices being returned, and all mark of a furrow obliterated by the plough pushing the loose soil into it with the mould-board, which is purposely laid over and retained in that position by a firm hold of the large stilt only. The obliteration should be complete, otherwise the hollowness at these furrows would be shown across the future ridges. 769. Another mode, having a similar object to cross-ploughing in pulverising the furrow-slices by cutting them into pieces, is called angle-ploughing, and is so named because the feerings are made in a diagonal direction across the ridges of the field. The ploughing is conducted in divisions of 30 yards each, and in exactly the same manner as cross-ploughing, with the same precautions as to the season, and the obliteration of the open furrows. It is never practised but after cross-ploughing, and not always then, and only in clay soil, unless the cross-ploughing has failed to produce its desired effect of pulverisation on the soil. tacles for surface-water to sour the land. When the soil is strong, lean flanks become so consolidated, that they are almost sure to resist the action of the harrows, when passed across the ridge; and in light soil they are filled up with the loose soil by the harrows, at the expense of the surrounding heights. No proud furrow-brows as at c, by setting up the furrow-slices more upright than they should be, to the danger of being drawn entirely into the open furrows on the harrows catching them too forcibly on leaving the ridge in cross-harrowing. And no unequal-sided open furrows, as at d, by turning over one mould-furrow flatter than the other. Not to extend this lengthened catalogue of evils accompanying bad ploughing, I will only mention that every sort of crop grows unequally on an illploughed ridge, because they grow better on the spots where the soil is most kindly; but the bad effects of bad ploughing are not confined to the season in which it is performed, as it renders the soil unequal when broken up again, and the thinner and harder parts do not yield so abundantly as the deeper and more kindly. The line d e, fig. 29, shows the position of the surface before the land was ploughed, and the irregular relation of the furrowslices to that line, show the unequal manner in which the ridge had been ploughed. * the newly ploughed surface would also be curved; and if it were flat, the new surface will be flat also. In gathering up a ridge from the flat ground, the earth displaced by the plough occupies a smaller area than it did by the extent of the open furrows, the feering-slices being only brought again together; but the displacement only elevates the soil above its former level, and the act of elevation cannot impart a curvature to it. It is true that ridges on being harrowed become curved, because the harrows draw the soil into the open furrows, where the least resistance is presented to them, and thereby alter the uniformity of the surface as left by the plough; but the curvature thus acquired had no connexion with the ploughing. Seeing a curvature thus produced without knowing its cause, most ploughmen endeavour to give the ridge a curvature, and accomplish it by bad ploughing; that is, they give a slight cresting to the crown, then plough the flanks with narrow and rather deep slices set up at too high an angle, for about four bouts, giving the last of these rather less depth and height than the rest, and the remaining three bouts next the open furrows they plough flatter, and finish off the desired curve with the mould-furrow slices. This artful device produces a ridge of pleasing enough curvature, and it is practised by the ploughmen with no intention to deceive; for they conceive they are thereby displaying their greatest skill. A really good ploughman, however, will resort to no such expedient. 771. It is the opinion of some agricultural writers, that land when ploughed receives a curvature of surface; whereas, correct ploughing-that is, making the furrow-slices on the same ridge all alikecannot possibly give the surface any other 772. There is a kind of ploughing pracform than it had before it was ploughed. tised in parts of the country in autumn If the former surface were curved, then and winter, which bears the name of ribbing in Scotland and of raftering in England. I notice it only to condemn it. It consists of turning the furrowslices on their backs upon as much of the firm soil as they will cover, as in fig 30, where a are the furrow-slices turned over upon the firm soil b, and c are the ploughtracks. The figure represents the work done in a more compact, clean, regular, and straight manner than is usually to be found in practice; for the ploughing not unfrequently causes the furrow-slices to lap over the firm soil, and the ploughtracks are seldom straight. The land lies in this state all winter, and dry enough; but the greatest proportion of the soil remaining unploughed, can be no better for the treatment. This ploughing can be done quickly, and without care, and is generally taken in a diagonal direction across the ridges, without a feering. It is chiefly practised on land in a very foul state, with the view of destroying the weeds; and it is believed their destruction is quickly effected by exposing the under surface of the furrow-slices, where the roots of the weeds are most abundant, to the action of frost, and the opinion no doubt is correct; but if the exposed part of the ground is thus benefited, it is evident the unploughed part can receive none, since it is not exposed at all, and it constitutes the largest proportion of the land; so that any advantage attending the practice is more than counterbalanced by its disadvantages. It is practised on all sorts of soils, and whether of stubble or lea ground; but in Scotland is confined to the north of the Firth of Forth, where it is now abandoned on the large farms, and confined to the fields of the small tenants; and here it may maintain its ascendency, for certainly no where are weeds more conspicuous. ON PLOUGHING STUBBLE AND LEA GROUND. 773. Although we have entered on the consideration of the winter operations of the farm, we have hitherto confined our observation to a few preliminary subjects, the nature of which must be understood by the agricultural student at the outset of his career, or he will fail to appreciate what is to follow. The time is now arrived, however, when we must com mence in earnest the actual work of the farm, in all its departments. You are now quite prepared for this. You have been made acquainted with the plough, its mode of attachment to the horses, the different methods in which the land is ploughed into ridges, and all the classes of persons required to execute the work of a farm conducted on the system of mixed husbandry. 66 re 774. As agricultural students, take an attentive view of the fields immediately after harvest, when the crop has been gathered into the stackyard, and you will perceive that a large proportion of them are in stubble, whilst others are occupied by grass, turnips, and young wheat. On examining the stubbled fields particularly, you will observe young grass amongst the stubble in some fields, and none in others. You cannot, of yourself, discover at once that the varied states of those fields bear a certain proportion to one another; and the reason why they bear any proportion is, that they are cultivated under a gular rotation of crops," which necessarily causes every field, in its turn, to carry the same series of crops. The numbers composing the series depend on the nature of the soil, and it shall be my duty to make you acquainted with the relation of soil and crop in due time. Meantime, suffice it to intimate, that when the stubble is in the state you find it, in the beginning of the agricultural year, the parts which contain no grass must undergo an immediate change, to prepare them to receive the crops which are to occupy them, in their appointed time. The immediate change alluded to is effected by the plough, not at, random, but by those fixed rules which determine the "various modes of ploughing land into ridges," according to the nature of the soil and the crop. Of the stubble-land, the part which is to bear the earliest crop is ploughed first, and so on progressively, until that to be occupied by the latest. For this reason, the land which is to bear the bean-crop is ploughed first, then that for the potatoes, then for the turnips, and, last of all, for the bare fallow. The stubble is generally all ploughed before the older grass or lea is ploughed. 775. On clay soil you will find the stubbled ridges of a rounded form, having been twice gathered up, fig. 26; and the way to plough them so as to keep them dry during winter is to cleave them down without either a gore-furrow, fig 27, or a mould-furrow, fig. 21, when on a considerable declivity; or with gore-furrows, and mould-furrows, fig. 28, when the land is flat. On less strong soil, casting with a gore-furrow will preserve the land dry whether flat or on a declivity. On light loams, casting without gore-furrows, fig. 22, will serve the purpose. And on sandy and gravelly soils, crown-and-furrow is the most appropriate mode of ploughing stubble. It is rare that stubble-land is subjected to any other mode of ploughing in winter; but the mode of ploughing adopted in the particular case depends on the mode in which the land had been previously ploughed on the particular class of soil. If it had been twice gathered up, fig. 26, on clay soil, it should now be closed down with gore-furrows, fig. 28; if so ploughed on loam, cleaving down without gore-furrows, fig. 27, answers best. If it had been cast on strong soil, it should now be recast with gore-furrows; but if it had been cast on loam, recast it without gorefurrows. If it had been ploughed two-outand-two-in, renew the furrow-slices, with gore-furrows between every two ridges. And if it had been ploughed crown and furrow, reverse the furrow-slices. A good general rule for all winter-ploughing, is to reverse the former furrow-slices with gore-furrows on heavy, and without them on lighter soils and the rule should be applied even to thorough-drained land, until the ultimate effects of the draining have been ascertained. and dry, either by thorough-draining or a naturally porous subsoil, it is sometimes desirable to plough the stubble-land deep with three horses instead of two, in winter, especially when the springwork may be anticipated to be unusually pressing. The horses are yoked according to the arrangement given in fig. 8. The form of ploughing may either be crownand-furrow, if the soil is light, or cast together with a gore-furrow, when somewhat heavy. One ploughman may direct the three horses well enough; but the assistance of a boy to turn the leading horse at the land-ends, and keep the coulter clear of rubbish with the plough-staff, fig. 5, would greatly expedite the work. The three horses may easily turn over a furrow-slice of 9 or 10 inches in depth, which being taken of proportionate breadth, but few slices across an ordinary ridge of 15 feet would be required. 779. In every variety of soil, ploughed in the forms just described for winter, care should be taken to have plenty of channels, or gaws or grips, as they are usually termed in Scotland, cut in the hollowest places, so as the surface-water may find them at every point by which to escape into the nearest open ditch. The gaws are first drawn by the plough laying them open like a feering, taking, in all cases, the hollowest parts of the ground, whether these happen to cross the ridges or go along the open furrows; and they are immediately cleared out by the hedger with the spade of the loose earth, which is spread over the surface. The fall in the gaws should tend towards a point, or points, best adapted to carry off the surface-water by the shortest route, and do the least injury to the soil. The ends of the open furrows which terminate at the open furrow along the side of the lowest headridge, as well as this furrow itself, should be cleared out with the spade, and cuts formed across the hollowest places of the headridge into the ditch. The precaution of gaw-cutting should never be neglected in winter in any kind of soil, the stronger, no doubt, requiring more gaws than the lighter; but as no foresight can anticipate the injuries consequent on a single deluge of rain, it should never be neglected, and never is by the 778. When the soil is tolerably clean, provident farmer, though many small 776. Strong clay soil should never be ploughed in a wet state, as it will become very hard in spring, and of course difficult to work. 777. Snow should never be ploughed in under any pretext, nor the soil ploughed at all, when in a frozen state. The frost and snow thus concealed remain a long time unaltered under the soil, and the spring may be far advanced ere its warmth will reach them so as to melt it, and relieve the soil from its chilled condition. |