The Song Of The Plow

My favorite part of farming,

Is the following of the plow,

With a team in step and a plow well set,

It just seems right some how.

The rolling of the furrow,

And the popping of the roots,

The traces squeak and the handles creak,

As the landslide fairly scoots.

The smell of new broke soil,

And the feel of new turned clay,

You prove your skill as you turn and till,

While the work feels most like play.

With the lines o’er one shoulder,

And the plowman’s knot behind,

You guide the team, and watch the beam,

Of the plow so well designed.

With its use we must be judicious,

Anything can be overdone,

But a good rotation feeds a hungry nation,

And the soil’s improvement is begun.

Generations have worked to improve it,

Its balance, design and its draft,

Now there’s many today who would cast it away,

To bring an end to the plowman’s craft.

They extoll the wonders of no-till,

While with poisons they sicken the land,

Bigger tools for traction add their compaction,

And the oilman’s much in demand.

If we’d only look back to our grandfathers,

Just like his fathers before,

The health of the land, with a good eye and good hand,

Can be improved and maintained once more.

Modern farming has no time for rotations,

The old four-course* is now gone,

Make a profit and quick while the world grows sick,

It’ll be someone else’s problem ere long.

Though I miss the squeak of the leather,

As the team pulls together in stride,

The pop of the roots while the landslide fairly scoots,

And I follow behind in my pride.

Now I think back through the ages,

It leaves me in awe somehow,

The progress of man, to where we now stand,

Has always followed the plow.

* A Four-Course rotation, sometimes referred to as a “Norfolk Four Course” involves rotating four plant crops over a four year period. In some places depending on the soil, it may be extended to seven years. The first year is usually a cereal crop like wheat since it requires little in the way of nitrogen but the biomass helps to but organic matter into the soil. The second year is a root crop which also requires little in the way of nitrogen but does well in humus and organic matter. The third year is another cereal crop. In Europe this was often Barley. The fourth year is usually a legume crop like clover which puts nitrogen into the soil for the following crops. When the rotation is extended to seven or more years, this legume crop will have grass added and is sometimes either cut for hay, or grazed as pasture and the “waste” of the animals is then returned to the soil to add nutrients as well as humus.