MONTHTY REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 59? 



" ' Slave !' said the cynic, dropping his point, which was at the throat of 

 his vanquished adversary, ' I had well nigh stained my good sword with the 

 blood of a felon ; but a glance at thy dangling weapon yonder, which hath 

 reached the goal somewhat before its master, reminds me that I may not 

 cheat the hangman of his fee/ 



" Having thus spoken, Spitzvogel turned upon his heel, and left the 

 minister to digest his discomfiture on his way home as he best might." 



We cannot conclude our necessarily brief notice of this volume 

 without congratulating the public on the facility afforded to intel- 

 lectual culture and amusement, by the exceeding cheapness of this 

 publication. 



THE USE AND ADVANTAGES OF PEARSON'S DRAINING PLOUGH. BY 

 THOMAS LAW HODGES,, ESQ. M. P. 



- WE have referred this pamphlet to one of our country friends for 

 an opinion as to its merits, and also for information touching the par- 

 ticular use and advantages of Pearson's draining plough ; for we must 

 conscientiously confess, that we know as much about Mr. Pearson or 

 his plough as we do about the birth, habits, and connexions oft he 

 man in the moon. The plate descriptive of the construction of this 

 instrument appears very well engraved, and the drawing may be to 

 the very plough for ought we know. Certainly, the machine at the 

 bottom of the page, with fig. 1 affixed, appears, as far as our judg- 

 ment serves, to resemble the idea we have formed of a plough as 

 much as any thing we ever saw. The truth is, looking amid this 

 metropolitan smoke and clatter, from month's end to month's end, in 

 our own vocation, we have little opportunity of extending our ob- 

 servation to the uses and improvements of the art of husbandry. We 

 therefore (and our country friends will be satisfied) must con- 

 tent ourselves with condensing simply the account Mr. Hodges gives 

 of Mr. Pearson, and the use and advantages of his improved ma- 

 chine. 



It appears, about six years since, Mr. Pearson hired a farm in the 

 parish of Frittenden, in Kent, and, after the first year's occupation, 

 discovered that the soil generally was wet and stiff, having through- 

 out, with very partial exceptions, a strong clay subsoil. Having but 

 a very limited capital, to undertake the draining of his farm was not 

 in his power. Mr. Pearson, nevertheless, applied his mind to the 

 discovery of some cheaper method than that hitherto practiced, and 

 succeeded ultimately in forming this plough, the use and advantages 

 of which Mr. Hodges, pointing out in his communication to the 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, submits to their notice. 

 When Pearson first entered upon his farm, the produce of the wheat 

 crops varied from two to three quarters per acre ; since it has been 

 underdrained by the plough in question, his average has exceeded 

 four quarters per acre not unf'requently getting five. 



" This invention consists in having applied to the common foot-plough a 

 certain share, which he calls a torn share, together with certain other irons, 

 by which he cuts out the drain to a sufficient depth, with an accuracy and 

 celerity hitherto unattained, and gives a principle of duration and effect to 

 the drain, when finished, equal to the best work of the same kind hitherto 

 entirely performed, and at so great a,-cost, by hand labour; thereby ac- 



