MAINE STATE SOCIETY. » £1 



Excellence in plows for all work and for fallows^ will be ad- 

 judged to consist : 1st, in easy draft ; 2d, thorough pulverization of 

 the soil ; 3d, complete inversion and burying of all vegetable mat- 

 ter. Due consideration will be given to the quality of materials, 

 durability and price of the implement, its susceptibility of accurate 

 adjustment to the required work, and the facility with which its use 

 is acquired by the plowman. 



For stiff soils, excellence of work shall consist in thoroughly 

 disposing of the sod and all vegetable matter, and at the same time 

 leaving the furrow slice light and pulverulent. 



For light soils, excellence shall consist in the ground being left 

 generally level, and the vegetable matter thoroughly buried. 



The reversible, or side-hill plow, will be required to do good 

 work on level land, as well as on side hill. 



The Society will make complete preliminary preparations and 

 arrangements, and be provided with an accurate dynamometer for 

 testing the draft ; and such other implements, fixtures and appli- 

 ances, and such teams, as will ensure accurate conclusions by the 

 committee, who will patiently multiply and suflBciently diversify 

 their experiments." 



In order successfully to carry out these regulations, the Trustees 

 made ample efforts to procure the best dynamometers. They suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining the one of Cottam & Hallen's manufacture, of 

 London, which was employed by the committee of the New York 

 State Agricultural Society in their celebrated trial at Albany, in 

 1850 ; and also one of Emery's oil-piston dynamometers, similar to 

 the one which was adopted so successfully by the committee of the 

 United States Agricultural Society at the trial of reapers at Syra- 

 cuse. Both of these were carefully submitted to a previous test by 

 suspending heavy weights upon them. Cottam & Hallen's being 

 carefully repaired and put in order by A. B. Barnard, of Worcester, 

 its owner, was found to indicate draught with considerable accuracy 

 up to 800 pounds ; and Emery's, after being subjected to a stress 

 of over 700 pounds, yielded to the pressure at the sides of the cyl- 

 inder, causing a more rapid escape of the oil, and consequently 

 proved unreliable beyond that pressure. 



The dynamometers, although answering the purpose intended in 

 the trials above mentioned, entirely failed when applied to the large 



