146 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



cumvolving furrows," says the Encyclopedia, " as employed by 

 us, were not practiced among the Romans, but the cattle 

 returned in the same furrow;" by this we understand one of 

 two things, viz. : either first that the team did not go round the 

 land, leaving the dead furrow in the middle, but by ploughing 

 all on one side, losing one travel of the team for every furrow, 

 the dead furrow would be brought out on the side of the piece 

 ploughed ; or secondly, the plough must have been our side-hill 

 plough, in using which, as now used, the dead furrow would 

 come on one side, without any loss of travel. This is the more 

 probable, although not a word is said about a side-hill plough. 



Indeed, in reflecting on this sketch of the Roman ploughs, 

 we are struck with the fact that the ploughs of that day antici- 

 pated every kind in use among us ; many went beyond any 

 thing we know, unless indeed, the Vermont universal plough 

 already referred to, be an exception. Probably agriculture and 

 agricultural implements all declined with the commonwealth 

 itself and died, or went into a long exile, from which they have 

 never returned to the papal fields. One maxim in Roman 

 agriculture ought not to be overlooked, viz. : " Sow less and 

 plough better," — a maxim worthy of lasting remembrance and 

 constant practice. 



Agriculture, like religion, merely glimmered through the 

 dark ages. Flocks and herds in England were the order of the 

 day, yet upon these the Saxons seized for their own use. " No 

 man might guide a plough who could not make one, and the 

 ropes with which it was drawn were to be made of twisted wil- 

 lows ; it was usual for six or eight persons to form themselves 

 into a society for fitting out one of these ploughs." Let a society 

 of this kind be compared with the agricultural societies of 

 Massachusetts in our day ! 



Nothing could be more interesting than to trace the history 

 of the plough from the time when it required twelve oxen or 

 eight horses to draw the " turnwrest plough," with two able 

 men to hold it, and one or two to bear upon the beam and two 

 drivers, down to our times, when two oxen, with one man to 

 hold, none to drive, and none upon the beam, can plough at 

 the rate of an acre in six, or even five hours. In passing, how- 

 ever, look a moment at the great Hertfordshire wheel plough, 

 " a great favorite" in its day, yet according to Arthur Young, 



