The Portland daily press., 1876-09-11
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Fall PlOughing.

to pillow in the fall, on account of the peculiar
crop they wish to raise-almost without re-
gard to the state of the soil or the weather.
Perhaps not so large a number in New Eng
land, as elsewhere, although many here SOW
either winter wheat, or rye as grain or ear
ly forage crop or grass seed. By large
majority however, this work is not attended
to either from indifference or neglect, or be-
cause they almost insensibly allow the pres
sure Of other work to prevent it. Deferred
until the last, it is very common experience
for farmers TO find the earth sealed up by the
frost. just as the blowing is well under way.
To this class we present few familiar sug-
gestions in favor of fall blowing, which need
to be repeated often, in order to secure a
hearing.
Flowing cannot be done in the fall
nor at any other season-when the earth is
so dry that furrow cannot be turned, or
when it is so wet that it is trodden into
quagmire under the cattle's feet. Ordinarily
however, after the equinoctial rains or dur
Ing the month OF October, there are days and
weeks when all the conditions OF earth and
air are favorable for the work. Regarding
blowing merely as a mechanical operation,
and we must decide that at no other time
does the earth give the plow so good an OPP
portunity for displaying the skill Of its con-
structor, or is it less likely to receive injury.
time Of the year is the weather more comfort
able for man or beast. Flowing at its best
is solid hard work, it can never be made rec
reation for the team or the plowman, and in
the early spring when the ground is hardly
settled, the weather frequently very warm,
and the cattle often weak from their winter
work or long exemption from labor, it proves
to be the most exhaustive operation of the
season. But in the clear, cool, calm days of
October, if labor is ever pleasant it is then
the bracing air invigorates instead of debili-
tating, and from substantial days work
only wholesome result need follow.
After the close of the harvest the farmer
finds his time of leisure, all the haste and
hustle that are the necessary accompani-
ments Of planting, hoeing, haying and har-
vesting are over; the crops are all housed,
and there is season of comparative rest.
Refreshed by rest and strengthened by par
taking of the fruits and crops of autumn, the
husbandman drives his team afeld more
like philosopher than a laborer, and turns
the shining burrows with sort of quiet and
contemplative satisfaction in which the pa
tient oxen half seem to share. Compared
with all the busy surroundings of spring and
the multiplicity of cares which vex the tiller
Of the soil as he begins his year of labor, and
in this respect alone, we find ample reason
for preferring the late autumn for this impor-
tant part of husbandry. tss
1t is evident alike to the scientific and the
unscienti6c man and it may be equally diff
cult for either to explain the process-that
certain fertilizing properties are unlocked
from the soil by the agency of drouth, and
drawn from the atmosphere by direct con-
tact, or through vegetable avenues-fall plow-
ing, furnishes the most sat sfactory method
of retaining all these valuable elements. So
also, while this end is accomplished, by the
same operation the soil lying down below the
surface is upturned, TO receive from the cold
and frost of winter the full benefit of their
disintegrating and dissolving power.
Adding to these considerations the facts
that in early autumn large amount of vege-
tation may be turned under to decay and en-
rich the soil-that destructive insects like the
cutworm, and other species, may be exposed
to the severity OF winter and thus destroyed,
and that only thus can an opportunity be
given for second blowing, before seed
sowing, and We think ample testimony is
in favor Of adopting fall blowing as part of
every farmers established system CT hus-
bandry.