The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-12-01
BENEFITS OF Fall PIoushing.

There is but little land, comparatively,
that is not greatly benefited by deep raj
ploughing. The sandy loan IS notso mucn
If at all. benefited by it, as that KIND OF SOL
is inclined to bake by the winter rams,
and is thus rendered tough and nard 10 tllI
the following season. But heavy cay sou,
are vastly benefited, and by being ploughcd
are left open to the action Of rain, frost,
snow. and alternate freezing and thaWlng,
which render it light, open, and easily
titled. Besides this, it is rendered suscep-
tible to chemical decomposition of the sub,
| soil, and is in many instances benehted
quite as much as it would have been had a
| good coat of manure been applied. This
| fact has been eXempliied in IN instance
which came under my immediate obServa-
ton. had field of twenty acres, with Il
heavy yellowish blue clay subsoll, with
clammy. cold, damp top soil Of gravelIy
| loan. Before ! bought the piece it had
been put in corn for many successive years,
and was sown in corn ut the time pur-
chased If. The growth was weak and sickly.
and had all the symptoms of badly "rotated' .
crops. NV neishbors were of opinion that
it was poor by nature, and wholly unfit for
cultivation, especially in corn. They were
opposed to "book farming" | believed in
"book farming They said experience
had taught them that such soil was mot
|
continuous application of rich stable ma
nure, which would cost more to apply than
the crop would bring when gathered"
determined to teach them good lesson
from book farming" This land had
never been fall-ploughed. On the 10Th OF
October. after the spindling corn had been
| cut and put into " stocks" or " Shoo6s,> as
they term it, ran a large Brinley subs0ll
| tw0-horse plough over it, turning up the
clammy, cold clods of clay and gravel loan,
| and let it rest until about the Isl of April.
! The huge clods of clay had "fused' with
the top soil, by the action of the weather,
| and | again ran Il two-horsc plough over it,
and let it so remain until the Goth OF the
same month. | then put on heavy two
| horse harrow, and crossed the field Doth
WAYS. then, on May 1st, checked Off the
corn rows, planted selected seed corn, and
covered with Il flat rock. If the ground had
| been of naturally warmer .and drlcr
nature, ! should have planted several
weeks earlier.
Before the ,reeds and the moles begun to
show their signs of destruction ] "spllt
the mildleS" both ways. Then the corn
was two or three inches high. put on my
harrow again (this time with two teeth re-
movedl). and went over the field, destroying
every vcSti@c of weed and clod. then IN
| ten DAYS ran cultivatOr over it-Hnd twice
after that plo1lghed it evenly with double
shovel plough. Each time of ploughing the
ground. which had before been tough and
cloddy. broke up like ~ aSh-banl;." This
season was not IN extra good one for corn,
being often dry !; but gathered that fall an
average Of eight and hGT barrels OF large,
fine. plump corn per acre, being d0Hdlc the
quantity raised on the same field III any one
year for the past decade. This fall gath
cred eleccn and Mird bG,TeiS per acre :
having cultivated it last year in wheat, and
falI-p0ughed it as before. The wheat crop
was largely over an average for this section.
Not a pound OF manure was applied. Fail
pioughing, simply that and nothing more,
satisfied my "anti-book farming" friends
that they had learned something from
WooDMAN. Stanford (Ky.). IN C"Hirator.