t^kf Description of th§ ^tafford Wheel-Plough^ 9, Feb. 



"broken, which the holder of a hand plough^ with a little care, 

 may avoid. 



In all strj.it furrowed work, the single furrow wheel 

 plough is an excellent tool for our land. It requires no hold- 

 er, except turning in and out, at the end, which the driver 

 does the instant the horses are upon the turn ; at other times 

 he walks over against the horses, whereby he keeps them in 

 speed, and makes them labour equally. Is not this much 

 better than walking behind the plough, and guiding with 

 .reins, which is the case in the Norfolk plough ? A docile 

 ,boy of 10 or 12 years old, will drive three horses in one of 

 these ploughs, and plough an acre of land per day, in com- 

 mon work, and can do much more Vv^hen exertion is neces- 

 sary. The ploughing is performed five or six inches in 

 depth, and if the tool be in good order, nothing can perform 

 the work better ; it is generally much superior to that done 

 by the best ploughmen with the hand plough. 



Respecting ploughing all sorts of land with tv^'o horses, the 

 idea has always appeared to me absurd ; the different propor- 

 tion of resistance between a strong clay turf and a pulverised 

 light sandy soil, will not be less than as five to one ; there- 

 fore five horses are as necessary in one case, as a single one 

 in the other. Three good horses are necessary to plough 

 the gravelly or mixed loam of this country, an acre per day, 

 five or six inches deep ; and he who should persevere in at- 

 tempting to do it with two, would lose more in horse-flesh 

 than he gained in labour. The light sandy soil here can be 

 ploughed with two horses, but those v/ho have them, prefer 

 working four horses in a two furrow plough ; and a few in- 

 stances occur of oxen workmg in these plouglis. The two 

 furrow wheel plough is much used on the light soils, and 

 drawn by four or five horses ; but on the heavier soils, the 

 plowmen are apt to plough too thin with them, in order to fa- 

 vour the horses ; and at the ends they lay heavy upon the 

 hind horse, or leave broad headlands. vSonic farming gentle- 

 men use the Norfolk plougli, particularly Sir George Pigott, 

 Bart, and Henry Vernon, Esq. but the most attentive farm- 

 ers in that neighbourhood, can perceive no advantage accruing 

 therefrom ; they had both ploughs and plowmen from Nor- 

 folk. An acre of land is ploughed here with the single fur- 

 row wheel plough, by going 11 miles along the furrow, and 

 nine inches wide, which is an acre without a fraction. This, 

 at two miles per hour, requires five hours and a half, to 

 which add one houi: for turning, and half an hour for a bait, 

 makes seven hours ; which, with going to and from the 

 field, forms an easy day's work. It is easy to see that more 



land 



