MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 43 



and yet so strong that it can be easily operated by one small mule or 

 horse, and guided by any boy big enough to reach the handles. 



Another implement which promises to be very useful, is called the 

 double plow, or sod and sub-soil combined : known in some parts of 

 the country as the Michigan Plow. Its peculiarity consists in this : 

 upon the beam about where the cutter, or coulter is usually fixed, 

 there is a common cast-iron plow-share, which cuts and turns the sod 

 any required depth, while the main share takes up the earth from the 

 bottom of the furrow, four or five inches deeper, and lays it in a com- 

 pletely pulverized state on top of the inverted sod. 



Among other improved plows exhibited at the New York Exhibition 

 were two patterns " side-hill plows." The first is so contrived that by 

 unhooking a stout hook and a little exertion of the plowman, while 

 the team is coming about, the whole share, mold-board and all together 

 is rolled over, and again fastened with the hook, so that the furrow is 

 turned the other way. These are made of different sizes, turning a 

 sod from 5 to 7 inches deep and 10 or 12 inches wide, and notwith- 

 standing their awkward appearance, work equally well on level or hill 

 side land. The same scale of proportions and carefully laid down 

 principles, in regard to curved lines, is preserved in all the plows 

 coming from this manufactory ; so that all work alike as to tractile 

 force, whether great or small, according to the work required of each 

 kind. With a side-hill plow the plowman may commence on the 

 lower edge of a hill-side, turning all the furrows down the slope, 

 going back and forth, changing his plow to the right and left at the 

 end of each furrow, or in the same way he may plow a level field. 



The other side-hill plow is made of iron, and has this striking 

 peculiarity, that the beam and handles together turn round upon a 

 pivot formed of the top of the standard. The share has a straight 

 land side, 2 feet 10 inches long, with a point at each end exactly alike. 

 Suppose you are turning a right hand furrow-, and wish to change to 

 the left, you give a rod under the right handle a little jog, which 

 unlooses a catch, and you walk round with the handle in your hand 

 till the beam points directly the other way ; now pull the rod and 

 close the catch, stoop over and give the mold-board a flap and it 

 turns back bottom up, disclosing another under it exactly like the 

 other, also bottom up and pointing forward ; turn this also, and you 

 have before you as neat a looking plow as you will find in the Exhibi- 

 tion, the reversed mold-board lying under the other, quite out of the 

 way, and the reverse point forming the heel of the land-side. The 

 length of the beam is 4 feet ; handles, 4 feet 6 inches ; width of share, 

 9 inches ; length from point to upper angle of wing, 2 feet 9 inches ; 

 length of wing from the joint to upper end, 1 foot 7 inches ; height of 

 standard, 1 foot 2 inches ; height of fin-cutter, 9 inches. This plow 

 has been recently invented by L. Hall, of Pittsburg, Pa. His con- 

 struction completely obviates the objection to the other side-hill plow, 

 that is, that it requires a very strong man to hold it, or rather to shift 

 the share which rolls under, in changing from side to side. 



The sub-soil plow is so little known, to a majority of those who till 



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