t 43« ] 



^Vhen we find fo many good qualities in a fwing- 

 plough, which is at the fame time fo fimple in its 

 conftruclion and tackle, would it not be abfurd 

 ever to employ a wheel-plough, with four horfos, to 

 do the work which can be done by the fwing with 

 two or three at moft ? and yet fo powerful is cuf- 

 tom, or fafoion, or prejudice, that I fee cvcrf 

 farmer round me dragging a heavy Hertfordlhirc 

 wheel -plough over his lands, which in many foils 

 does no more than fcratch them. I am fure I do 

 not exaggerate, when I fay that many farmers in 

 this neighbourhood do not turn a furrow of above 

 three inches deep. But befides this, our clumfy 

 wheel-ploughs are all made with ftraight mould- 

 boards, which do not turn the flag, unlels the 

 ploughman lays them over fo much on the land fide 

 edge, that the tail of the mould-board fweeps along 

 the under fide of the turning turf, and helps to lay 

 it over. This pofition of the plough is attended 

 with one very bad confequence, which is, that it 

 raifes the fin of the fhare out of the level; this 

 makes it cut the bottom of the furrow obliquely, 

 and the turf or flag thus raifed is not fquare or par- 

 rallel, but triangular, leaving the foil when ploughed 

 of unequal depths. 



This I call a very great defedt in our wheel- 

 ploughs, but this is not the only one; for the moft 



fkilful 



