EARLY PLOUGHING.

Southland Times, Issue 1720, 28 March 1873, Page 3

EARLY PLOUGHING.

" Make hay while the sun shines" is a proverb which the farmer who wishes to succeed in his vocation must act upon, both in its literal and figurative sense. Simultaneously with the ingathering of one harvest comes the time for preparation for the succeeding one, and the closer he makes the one tread upon the heels of the other so much the better for the farmer. If he has capital and labor at command sufficient to enable him to do so, it were well if the preparations for the next year's crop commenced even before that of the present year was off the ground. We like to see the plough at work among the standing stooks. It is a thing we don't often see here ; but when we do sea a farmer smart with his work, he has at least our beat wishes, and the chance — nearly the certainty — is that those good wishes will be fulfilled. These are the kind of men who get heavy crops almost every year, while the men who drive their work off to the last moment are the men who have light, or positively bad crops. The farmer who has the plough in his stubbles now is gaining in s, variety of ways ; the soil is in better order for working than it will be in the depth of winter ; and if through the dryness of the soil, the draught of the plough is a little greater, the horses' footing ia good, and the work is, more comfortable, both for man and beast, than it will be later on. If any part of a farmer's land is at all foul with seeds of weeds, there will be yet sufficient time for them to germinate, and, by being routed about, expelled from the laud before seeding time comes round. In fact, the advantages are so manifold and evident that it is unnecessary to dilate upon them at any length. Every farmer should plough as early as he possibly can, even if by so doing he ploughs a little " feed" in. Here is something that is often allowed to interfere with early ploughing ; the stubble land is left unploughed at long as possible, in order to afford run for sh«ep or cattle. Where this is the case it is a mistake. "Not so to feed off the atubble land, for nothing is more beneficial than to run stock over it, as the vegetation they eat off, which otherwise would be turned under as manure, they return to the soil as manure in a still more beneficial form. But it is penny wise and pound foolish, as many do, to keep stock running on land after there has ceased to be anything for them to pick up, and thus spoil the chance of a good crop the followieg year by delaying ploughing The sooner the land is turned over, the longer it can lie and the more it can be aerated before receiving the seed for the ensuing crop the better, whether early or late cropping is followed. If early cropping is believed in — and most of our farmers have found it to be the best — then early ploughing is doubly important ; and we believe it would be better to delay put ting a crop in for a time, rather than sow it before the land has been exposed for a certain psriod to atmospheric influences, for in this lies many of the elements of success. Before concluding our remarks on this subject, there is one point which must not be overlooked in connection wish early ploughing. Although at this time of the year the weather is dry, it must be remembered that it will not be so in two or three months' time. It is therefore expedient that, in land ploughed at the present time, the furrows should be struck out deeply, and the ends opened with cross-furrows, other crosßfurrows being made at intervals throughout the fields, especially if the work is long. These enable rain-water, if it cannot get down one furrow, to cross to the next, and so find its way off into the outside ditches. |Xt is a work easily done, and performed without damage to the land in dry weather ; if left until the land gets flooded, it becomes a far more troublesome matter to drain it ; the land is poached by the horses in striking the furrows, besides which, before that is done, the soil, through getting sour and clogged together, will have acquired qualities which will seriously militate against the success of the ensuing crop. — Canterbury Times.