52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Probably the plough has passed through more changes and 

 transformations than any other implement of agriculture. In 

 the earliest periods, as we have already seen, it was very rude 

 and simple ; and even in the most advanced periods of Roman 

 agriculture, though there were ploughs of various models, with 

 colters and without them, with wheels and without them, with 

 mould-boards and without them, with broad-pointed shares and 

 with narrow ones, ploughs adapted to light soils and ploughs 

 adapted to stiff clays, the construction of the plough was com- 

 paratively rude and awkward, capable of doing little more than 

 to scratch the surface of the soil. But the ploughs of all mod- 

 ern nations in which agriculture has made any substantial 

 advance, are of a more complicated form and adapted to a 

 greater variety of circumstances. 



The Romans undoubtedly arrived at a tolerably correct idea 

 of the form of the plough, that of a movable wedge ; but they 

 did not so clearly understand the combination of the principles 

 of the wedge and the screw which modern ingenuity has ap- 

 plied to the mould-board. 



The Dutch should have the credit of the earliest improvements 

 of the plough of modern times. Early in the last century neces- 

 sity led them to study the effects of draining on the soil, and 

 the importance of a more thorough tillage became manifest. 

 This led to successive improvements. About that time Dutch 

 mechanics and engineers were considerably employed in Eng- 

 land in the draining of large estates, and it is probable that this 

 was the means of its introduction in England, where it was 

 known under the name of the Rotheram plough. It was made 

 entirely of wood, with the exception of the draught rods, the 

 coulter and the share, and the iron with which the mould-board 

 was shod. This plough, patented about 1730, was the starting 

 point of our modern improvements. It came into pretty general 

 use in England during the last century, though, being made in 

 every county by the village blacksmith and wheelwright, it often 

 assumed a great variety of forms. It was known even in this 

 country under the name of the Dutch plough. 



It would be useless to attempt even a sketch of the various 

 forms through which the plough passed in England and Scot- 

 land during the last and the present century. The English 



