Vermont daily transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1868-1870, 1868-05-22

men are artists
To plough well requires that the
ploughman understands his business,
and have Il plough precisely adapted to
the soil which he would plough two
conditions rarely met at the same time.
Indeed it may well be questioned wheth-
er as many as one ploughman in thou
sand has real idea of just what he
would accomplish and to what extent
he is really accomplishing the object
sought
The stifiest clay and the highest sand
are ploughed with the same implement
and in the same manner. Ii is a fact
well established by frequent and thor
ough trials that stiff clay soil properly
laid up in lap burrows will one season
with another produce much heavier
crops than if laid fat. The reason is
obvious to the most casual observer. |
have Il noighbor who tells of ploughing
upa field that had been laid down to
grass several years before and yet the
sods that were turned in at the previous
ploughing were found to be in Il very
perfect state of preservation. They had
been turned into the bottom of the fur
row perfectly flat and narrowed over
till they were as Theoretically sealed rs
if they had been just put into glass
jar and sealed up with wax. OF course
the crops had never received any bene-
fit from the humors thus stored away.
My neighbor frequently cites this case
as proof positive that all deep plough
ing is wrong-but it only proves that
one kind is not profitable--it does not
prove half so much as my neighbor
claims for it.
Again very much ploughing is so lily
done as to render the after cultivation
much more laborious and unsuccessful.
All through the country the smooth
est and fairest fields are so miserably
broken and uneven surface and many
bits of sods are unturned while all over
the field little tufts of grass or weeds
are seen sticking up, though not more
cropthat is sown upon the field.
A sandy or gravelly soil that cannot
be laid too fiat is not unfrequently
thrown into unsightly ridges with deep
dead burrows between and all exposed
to the winds and sun to the very mani
fest detriment of the cultivator.
Such soil being open, porous, per-
meable requires only to be inverted-to
cover every green thing out of the way
of the crops to be grown, and should be
treated with an implement OF an en-
tirely different character from that re-
quired for the clayey soil.
But the bad work made by a plough
not adapted to its work is not more to be
deprecated than the unnecessary labor
imposed upon the team in the use OF
such a plough.
The recent trial of ploughs under the
auspices of the New England Agricul-
tural Society Cat Amherst, Mass con-
firmed the already well established fact
that any attempt to make plough
without having first studied the nature
and pcculiarities of the soil in which il
is to be used is all labor lost and | be.
lieve it moreover confirmed every look
er on in the opinion that mere occulai
inspection is very unsafe method o.
determining the comparative merits O
different ploughs. The practical res
ults of that trial, if the people but .heet
its teachings, must be Il much improved
system of ploughing at a considerably
reduced expenditure of motive power
The Ames Plow Co., of Boston, seem.
to have been remarkably fortunate in
adapting the several kinds of plough'
to the requirements of various soils and
| cannot but commend in most hearty
terms the science and skill displayed by
their designer, Mr.. Samuel A. Knox, il
their series of ploughs known as
KnoX's patent.
OF the seven medals awarded at tn,
trial they took five, "A circumstance o
sufficient importance to justify me il
naming the concern without exposing
me to the charge of righteousness | sin
cerely trust, O. 5. BLISS.
NJ.oo 4, c,rrro1,nvrc nuuocp Adv -Th,