SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



61 



plough is raised or lowered, and made perfectly fast and secure at any 

 point wanted for the regulation of its depth of furrow, and any 

 requisite depth may thus be secured to any degree of nicety. The 

 forward mould-board turns the sod-furrow as wide as the working of 

 the whole plough, and the earth on top assuming an arch-like shape, 

 is naturally opened, while the effort of the rear mould-board brings 

 up the deeper soil, completely covering and filling the surface, so that 

 the sod-furrow is in no case liable to be brought to the surface by 

 harrowing or other processes of after-cultivation ; the surface of the 

 furrows lies arching, the cohesion of the soil is neutralized, its inte- 

 gral parts are disunited, and the ploughed land lies light and mellow, 

 and almost as fine as if harrowed, — indeed, in some free soils render- 

 ing the use of the harrow quite unnecessary." 



Another modification is that of the subsoil plough, designed 

 to loosen the lower strata of the soil without bringing it to the 

 surface. Of this plough there are numerous sub-varieties, and 

 among them the following — 



having a diamond-shaped foot attached by a cast-iron plate to 

 the ordinary plough beam. The soil is lifted up and loosened. 

 The use of the subsoil plough is admirably adapted to under- 

 drained lands. 



In one point,.especially, we have improved — the adaptation of 

 our ploughs to the different kinds of soil on which they are to 

 be used. When attention was first directed to this implement 

 during the latter part of the last century, the principles of 

 ploughing were not so well understood as at the present day. 

 The work was not so carefully done or so critically examined, 

 and consequently the want of different forms of the plough was 

 not much felt. But now the ground must be more skilfully 

 prepared for cultivation ; soils of different natures are differently 

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