Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1856-03-13
agrirultural.
From the American Farmer.
THOROUGH TlLLAGE-CULTIVAT
OF CORN

It is remarkable fact, that man who
strenuously advocated the extraordinary
heresy, that manuring is not only useless,
but pernicious, should have any fame at all
among farmers; yet Jethro Tull has been
dead more than century, and his fame is
yet spreading and growing as one of the
most enlightened, intelligent and progress
sive practical farmers of the day. His fame
rests mainly on his sagacious observations
and careful experiments upon the thorough
stirring and cultivation of the soil, and it is
we'll deserved. With singular sagacity, his
practical understanding saw the necessity,
which science after the lapse of a century,
is beginning to explain, Of opening up the
minutest particles of the soil, to the opera
ton and influence Of the atmosphere. With
not the first idea of nitrogen, oxygen, or
carbonic acid; of ammonia in the air, or
phosphates and silicates, soluble or insolu-
BILE, in the earth, he seized and held fast the
great fact that the thorough breaking up
and separation of the particles which COM
pose the soil, is the primary condition Of
fruitfulness. It has been so from the first,
and will so continue to the end. Il will
dig about it, and dung it," was the reply of
the prudent cultivator to his master, who
ordered him to cut down the unfruitful tree,
and ''digging and dunging," are at this day
the comprehensive vocabulary of the cultur
ist and the grand conditions of fruitfulness.
While we do not hold with Tull, that ''dung-
ing'' is either pernicious or unnecessary, yet
we do think that the practice Of the present
day gives it an undue precedence over dig
ging." In the former, we furnish to the
earth portion Of the food Of plants; in the
latter process we put the earth in that con-
dition, in which alone it can be the medium
appropriating this food to the use of plants
but more than this, we bring out and
make available to the same purpose, hidden
stores and treasures of plant food which have
been locked up in its recesses, and make it
capable of imbibing rich draughts from the
az M tie Il aeH na ana tad the rains We do not OBJ
the purchase of manures, but We Do marvel
at the carelessness, which in imperfect work
ing of the soil loses half the value of these
manures, and an equal value perhaps with
in the soil which it fails to develop.
While man is at any rate at the expense
of team, driver, and plough, how very
small is the difference in cost between very
good and very bad ploughing. A little
more care in the plcughman, a little more
watchfulness in the master; a team some
what stronger, and care to get the best
plough. With only this difference, what an
amount Of bad ploughing is done, how little
good ploughing is done. And when the
master makes all due provision, how much
depends upon the plough ghman; how much is
s'cut and covered" how much left unbrok-
en- from the careless or accidental running
out Of the plough how many rising grounds
and knolls just skinned, and sods half
turned, to be dragged back by the harrow,
and when the 50 called breaking up is COM
pleted, mere scratching with the harrow,
satisfies the conscience of the master and the
eye of an ''outsider," that the work of pre-
pairing for crop is done.
] The first operation upon the turf field is
the thorough, perfect turning over Of the
sod. This, except on very light lands, re-
quires team of three horses of medium
size, and in good condition to turn to the
requisite depth of at least eight inches
The most perfect cultivation requires, we
have no doubt, subsoil plough, breaking
: up, but not throwing out the subsoil, to the
depth Of Is to IS inches It is an expen-
sive process, however, requiring double
force of team to do the work of ploughing
and will not pay under ordinary circum-
stances. The sod once turned down, should
. stay down for the season, and not torn OF
dragged up again by the markings and cross
, ings, for planting, or by any other opera
ton. Immediately after the plough, within
an hour if it can be done, certainly within
f the day, let heavy roller follow, to pack
the inverted sods, and the harrow to give
t fresh turned earth the tilth, which it will
never take so we'll after being dried in the
sum- The experienced gardiner knows this,
and his spading does not exceed rod of
ground before it is thoroughly raked. There
is no manner of necessity for ploughing the
whole field of thirty or fifty acres before the
narrowing is begun, and no practical diff
Guilty in having all the operations of plough
ing, rolling and narrowing, carried on to-
gether and completed, to the extent of the
ploughing, before leaving the field These
primary operations being concluded, the af-
ter tillage consists in such use of the har-
row, cultivator, or plough, as will most
thoroughly and perfectly drag, tear, break
to pieces and pulverize every cubic inch of
earth on top of the inverted sod: and this
should be done as much as circumstances
will allow before the crop is planted, or as
early as possible afterwards. The most per-
feet preparation for crop, is that of a well
managed Tobacco field. The first operations
Of ploughing and narrowing, are done early