The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-02-22
GOOD PLOW|DG
REQUIRES SKILL
Soil Conditions Must Be Studied Be
fore the Right Kind OF fiowins
Can Be Done.
Rv r. 3. RUSHING.

-.
II was in conversation with =
neighbor just a snort tune g and
he asked me the question:: What is
GOOD blowing. and how should it he
6ona in the spring to give best re-
sults?"
/ replied: Good blowing consists
in turning and setting the soil into
nice neat. even, clean, round, straight
frrrows so that the ppe SOIL Will be
brought I'D as much as possible and
exnosed to the sun and atmosphere
what do l mean by clean burrows?
Having the weeds, stubbie ana grass
all turned under the cutting a clean
Landslide. Even? Having the burrows
all the same height.
Round? So hat the burrows viii
show q little crease tween them.
and unless you pillow straight, your
burrows will not be ever
Some may think that certain depth
and width are necessary IN good
blowing. It is. Regulate the width
hv depth. but there are SO many diff
ferent shaped mold boards which
throw the soil in different positions,
that some would cut wide burrows
and others narrow. Not only this, but
some soils need shallow ploWlng IN
order to produce h best results,
while others need deep pio"lng'
I pillow a certain depth n width
and get good results, but this might
not apply to all farms You might
try the same width and depth with
Door results.
I have found that even on the same
farm there are sometimes dlferenS
fields that will give better results with
different depths of blowing, and.
therefore. it becomes necessary to
make it a study and now what IS
needed.
II you pillow shallow do not set the
pillow so that it cuts SO wide as When
blowing deep then it will not turn
the soil so fat
Weeds are more readily kept down
and consequently a better yield is Sc
cured. / find this to be especially
true with spring blowing, when tho
land is often a little wet IN the
spring when the farmer is in a rush
the blowing Is more or less hkeiy 10
be sighted.
/ think one special reason for poor
blowing with some farmers is a duh
pillow. I have seen men let their
plows become SO dull that were it not
for the weight # the man on the
sulky, the share would slip out OF the
ground. This is very har on the
horses. Then where the ground is
hard, the plow m up out Of the
| ground and leaves the blowing un-
| even.
1 have seen men use dull plows and
not KNOW It. 10 look at tnc ptONs
they would not appear so Aull. but
when they + set on a board YOU
could see that the bottom had the
appearance OF a sleigh runner.
Another fault, and I might say n
very common fault. lies in trying to
do too much blowing. I have seen
men actually trying to cut from IS to
20 inches of dirt at one furrow. This
leaves the ground too fat, and some
of it unturned.
/ have never yet seen any pillow that
would handle this much soil and do it
right. 1t will sometimes happen that
the furroW wheel will run on top, in
such case the careless plowman will
pull his team over into place and go
on, thus leaving a little space I'M
w and a hole in the blowing,
which makes it look very bad.
All such blowing is Improbable.
therefore, great care should be
taken to see that the land is plowed
Well as 1t is better for the land and
the crOps
SENSE AND NONSENSE