Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1874 — Plowing. [ARTICLE]

Plowing.

There arc three principal things necessary to good plowing: first, the ability to properly guide a team; second, knowledge and tact to arrange the plow to the work in hand; and third, an intelligence in gauging the furrow slice and properly turning the furrow’. These being learned, the rest is easy. The greatest difficulty with plowmen is in laying out and finishing the lands. This being properly understood, the act of plowing becomes simple enough. Let us give one easy, efficient and ordinary plan: Set a line of light stakes across the field; gauge the reins so that, when placed on the beam handle of the plow, and at the point where it is grasped by the hand, the team being in ifiotion, they will just bear kindly on the bits of the horses. Place the team so that the line of vision will be over the mold-board of the plow and between the horses to the stakes. Set the plow so that it will turn a furrow from one-half to three-quarters the depth the land is to be plowed; grasp the lines with two fingers of the left hand, at the near or left side of the handle, so that, when the rein is pulled straight back, there will be leverage enough against the handle with the ofirein to draw both alike. Thus, pulling slightly to the left will swerve the team to the right, and easing on the rein will bring them ta the left. A steady rein will keep them straight; and, however fresh the team may be, if steady, no trouble will be. experienced in keeping them in a direct line to do good work. There is no other plan that we have ever tried by which a team is under so good control. Some practice is required by the plowman to do good work, hut less than by any other plan, not even excepting the Irish way of grasping a rein in each hand while holding the plow. Keeping the eye directly along the stakes, seek to so plow them down that they shall fall sideways. Upon reaching a stake do not stop, but continue to the end of the furrow. Bringing the team directly about, gauge the plow to cut the full depth you wish to work. Turn the next slice and the previous one into the farrow already opened, stopping at each stake to place them for the next land; and thus proceed until you have reached the starting point. Then go once more about, drawing two more furrows. An ordinary plowman may then be trusted to finish two-thirds or three-quarters of the land. In plowing the lands after they are laid out, the lines, without any detriment to the work, may be carried around the hips of the plowman; but if the team he fairly trained, they may be tightly held with two fingers of the left hand, or even be allowed to rest upon the handle,which leaves the body entirely free ; and it is the motion of the body as much as anything else that assists in doing perfect work. Each bolt ahont the plow should fill the holes and every nut should be drawn tight. The team should be in direct line of draught, so that, when the team is going forward, the plow will cut its ordinary furrow with the guide piiHn the

center hole of tie b««m, and, when the aide of the plow la mnning lerel, the Ind perfectly S^ al the e furrow 7 If this be carefully attended to, any inteßigent man can be taught in half a day on clear land to do fair work in plowing by instructing him in holding the plow, gauging and turning the furrow, and in bringing the team and plow about at the ends. It is even more difficult to finish a land neatly and well than to lay it out. In laying out the principal thing is to see that the team draws even and walks directly forward. Not only mast this he observed, but, having a strip equal to two furrow slices; the plow should be gauged to take a farrow only two-thirds the usual depth. Hairing turned one of the furrows thus, readjust the plow to the ordinary gauge and turn the last furrow, making no balks. If it be necessary to clean the furrow for drainage the plow may be passed again back and forth, leaving the center full of mellow epirth, through which the water will percolate readily. Excellence, in plowing consists in laying out the lands, and thereafter keeping the furrows perfectly straight; in having them of uniform thickness, and in laying them in such manner that they may best continue permeable to the air; in perfectly covering weeds and trash, so that they may not interfere with the subsequent working of' the crops; in so varying the implements that they may do as perfect work as possible, whether in mellow soil, in stiff clays, among rubbish or weeds, in stiff sod “or ordinary sward.. All these must be reached by study—not only of the prbper shape 6f the plow used, bixt also of the nature of the soil to be worked. f : All this the farmer should understand. To the mere plowman it is not essential. It is, however, essential that he 4>e able to take a team alone, stake and strike out the lands; adjust and readjust the plow to suit the various contingencies that may arise, and to perform has work in a uniform and workmanlike, manner. This constitutes good plowing, , and the performer is a good plowman. The perfect plowman is he who can not only do all this, but knows why it should be so done. ThiS’constitutes intelligent labor. What portion of our plowmen may prop'erly claim this perfection? Comparatively few. • Why not? The simple act of plowing, the knowing when and how to do it properly, is one of the most important labors of the farm. It is what often makes or causes serious loss thereon. — Western Mural. —A strong-minded woman in„ Detroit made the following gentle reply to a politician who had called at her house to get. her husband to go to the polls and vpte: “No, sir; he can’t go u He’s washing now and he’s going to iron tomorrow; and if he wasn’t doing anything he couldn’t go. I run this ’ere house, I do; and if any one votes it’ll be this same woman.”