Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1894-11-23
RACING ACROSS THE LANDS

drifts yet unmelted in the fence corners
and in the gullies of the hillside, and
it still retains some of the balm of sum
mer. You will do WE'LL too, if the choice
is left to you, to begin your blowing in
field that has recently been cropped
and not in one whose surface is covered
with a sward of some years. growth,
especially if your team be light, for
only the heaviest draft animals can be
used in breaking sward with any COM
fort to the man who holds the pillow
handles. Light horses are obliged, in Or
der to haul the plowshare' s cutting edge
through the sward's thick mass, to move
with much greater speed than the heavy
ones, and the man who plows sward
with horses weighing less than 1000
pounds apiece is far more wearied when
at noon the dinner horn calls to the
midday meal than his neighbor whose
team is heavier is likely to be at night.
My first experience as plowboy was
in the autumn in a 5 acre field Of sward
that had not been turned for 25 years.
Fair and smooth this field appeared to
the eye, for although it had originally
been covered with stones they had been
picked clean and laid into walls in place
of fences, with the exception Of here
and there a bowlder showing its rounded
brown or white surface in strong con-
trast with the prevailing green. These
powders, however, did not add to the
difficulty Of breaking up the sod, for
they could be avoided, but there were
others, lying just below the surface,
which could not be perceived till they
were struck, and therein lay my great
est difficulty. My team was light, one
of the horses weighing. about 1000
pounds and the other about 1, 100. Ev.
cry farmer knows that such team
ought not to be put in to break sod. I
know it now, and it was in that field Of
sward that learned it.
My little horses, barely more than
ponies, were admirably adapted to light
road work, but not at all to breaking
sod. Besides being light they were high
strung and doubtless indignant at the
heavy task: I placed upon them; BY no
possibility could they do the work at a
steady, even gait. They were obliged to
race across the Glands" as the sections
into which a field is divided by the
plowman are denominated. If you have
ever plowed, you do not need to know
Of my misery during the fortnight that
was consumed in breaking those Is acres
of sod. It was almost impossible to
keep straight furrow, and frequently
the pillow would run completely out Of
the ground, making it necessary to back
the horses with one hand and haul the
heavy iron sod breaker with the other
to the point of leaving the furrow. This
almost constant bobbing in and out Of
the furrow was extremely conducive to
bruises AS I am rather tall, was
thumped continually in the region of
the hips, which became black and blue
on the first day Of my labors in the field
and remained so until the work was en-
tirely finished. If I had been shorter Of
stature, would have received tho plow
handles hammering on the ribs.
This punishment and the exertion Of
keeping my team as near straight as
possible were enough to make any one
in position to do so forsWear the Occu-