Delaware Gazette

How to Plow for Corn.

We commend to our readers a practice which we have followed with great satisfaction in plowing our corn ground, whether it was sod or stubble, namely: by what is called "back-furrowing" commencing in the middle of the field. turning the furrows inward, thus plowing the entire field going round. Find the middle of a field with a measuring pole or tape, and set a stake. Then turn a ridge of two furrows in a straight line from each corner of the field to the stake. These ridges will enable a plowman to do his work well at the turning points. The advantages of plowing in this manner are, there will be no dead furrows in the field. A row of corn, if planted in a dead furrow, will not amount to much, except for fodder. When a field is plowed in lands, the soil will not be thoroughly broken up beneath the ridges. When a field is plowed by going around the outside and finishing in the middle. there will be a dead furrow from each corner to the middle of it. The team. moreover, must turn on the ground. which treads down a wide strip from the corners to the middle of the field. But when a field is plowed by beginning in the middle, the entire team, whether double or single, always turn on the unplowed ground, and it is easier for the plowman to turn out and set in his plow at the corners, than when he turns the furrow outward. By plowing in this way, the surface will be kept level, and the work performed in a more workmanlike manner. In order to have every side of the field finished alike, measure each side from the plowed ground to the outside of the field every day. Then the furrows may be varied in width, or omitted on one side, while the plowed plot is small.— Aim always to keep the furrow slices of a uniform width.-[American Agriculturist.