PLOUGHING. 145 



American ingenuity might seem to be entitled to repose for a 

 while, until other nations conic up. Foreign countries are 

 behind us in the matter of the plough as well as the reaper. 

 Englishmen affect to scout Mr. Webster's remark on his return 

 from Europe, viz. : that he had seen nothing abroad which would 

 compare with American ploughs ; but he was right, for by the 

 report of a committee at a most thorough trial at Sing Sing, in 

 October, 1842, it appears that the European ploughs cut their 

 furrow-slice ten inches broad and six deep only, while the 

 American cut twelve inches wide and eight deep. But Yankee 

 ingenuity asks for no repose, indeed we should not desire to 

 have any. 



It is hardly necessary to say, perhaps, that it is not possible 

 for the same plough to work well in entirely different soils. It 

 is said, indeed, that the Vermont " Universal Plough," invented 

 by Mr. Holbrook, is an exception. It is said to be fitted by 

 having a variety of mould-boards for any soil. The inventor 

 probably took his hint from a description of one of the old 

 Roman ploughs, which was fitted with extra mould-boards for 

 the same purpose, but which has been suffered to go out of use 

 by the common consent of mankind. 



History of the Plough. — Roman history throws light upon 

 the plough as an instrument of agriculture. Cato mentions two 

 kinds, one for strong and one for light soils. Varro mentions 

 a plough with two mould-boards, for the purpose, he observes, of 

 ridging when they plough after sowing the seed. The Romans 

 had ploughs, says Rev. A. Dickson, with mould-boards and 

 without mould-boards, with coulters and without coulters, with 

 wheels and without wheels, with broad pointed shares and with 

 narrow ones, not only with sharp sides and points, but with high 

 raised cutting tops. The simple Roman ploughs, says the Lon- 

 don Encyclopedia, by which is probably meant the plough for 

 light soils, had no mould-board or coulter:, the " plough staff" 

 was also a detached part, and the manicular which the plough- 

 man took hold of, was a short bar fixed across ; and to the 

 draught-pole the oxen were attached. Virgil's plough had a 

 mould-board, says the Encyclopedia, but the common plough 

 for light soils, instead of the mould-board, required either a 

 stick inserted in the share-head, or to be held obliquely. " Cir- 



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