THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



45 



plement. It is suggested as a reason why wheel-ploughs are 

 more used in England than in Scotland, that the soils in the 

 former possess a more uniform character than those in the 

 latter. And it is worthy of notice that the use of wheel- 

 ploughs has been very much on the increase in Scotland since 

 the soil has been improved by thorough draining, by being 

 freed of land-fast stones, and rendered more uniform by deep 

 cultivation and liberal manuring. While we are inclined to 

 give the preference to swiug-ploughs for general use in Scot- 

 land, in the present circumstances of agriculture, as being 

 more capable of accommodation to the different operations 

 usually performed by the plough, such as drilling for green- 

 crops, &c., we consider the wheel-ploughs deserving the at- 

 tention of those farmers for whose soil they are adapted ; as 

 in the present state of the labour market, when so many of 

 the best ploughmen are emigrating, less skilful labourers may 

 be employed to hold the plough, just as the introduction of 

 the reaping-machine has given employment during harvest to 

 many who, from want of skill in the use of the sickle or scythe, 

 were of no use in the harvest-field before. 



We cannot conclude this report without expressing our sense 

 of the obligations under which the agricultural community, 

 throughout England and Scotland, is laid to his Grace the 

 Duke of Athole and the Members of Committee, who have so 

 successfully carried out now for three years, at great expense 

 and personal trouble, these national competitions in ploughs 

 and ploughing, at a season of the year when ploughs are most 

 in use. We attach far more importance to them than to those 

 attempted under the auspices of the national Agricultural 

 Societies of England and Scotland ; for these are made in 

 summer when the plough is very little in use in Scotland, and 

 the competition takes place necessarily either on hay stub- 

 ble, with a tender sward, or on. loose fallow land, and in weather 

 usually dry. These are circumstances peculiarly favourable 

 for rectangular furrows and wheel-ploughs, and we are not 

 surprised that, for some years, such ploughs have been placed 

 among the first of the competing ploughs. We wish also to 

 record our sense of the spirit and enterprise of the English 

 plough-maker.5, who so promptly responded to the invitation of 

 the gentlemen connected with the match, and brought, at 

 great personal inconvenience and expense, not merely their 

 ploughs, but, in some instances, their horses, to compete with 

 their brethren in trade on this side of the Tweed. 



Henry Stephens, George Hope, 

 Peter M'Lagan, Thomas Wylie. 



William Ford, 



STRATHORD PLOUGHING MATCH. 



to the editor of the PERTHSHIRE ADVERTISER, 



Sir,— This long-talked of report has at length made its 

 appearance, and as the public have looked forward with some 

 anxiety for the reasons which guided the judges iu giving their 

 memorable decision, I venture to solicit as much of your valua- 

 ble room as will enable me to give expression to my candid 

 opinion, that opinion being formed from closely watching the 

 proceedings from their beginning to their final issue. 



THE DUKE of athole. 



I cordially join issue with the general public* in yielding to 

 his Grace the full merit of liberal intention in instituting these 



* As ne take it, what the writer really means is tliat lio 

 agrees with the general public, tlie very reverse, in fact, of join- 

 ing issue. -En, F.M, 



ploughing matches ; but is the question between wheel and 

 swing ploughs a single point nearer settlement ? On the con- 

 trary, a question which is in itself simple has become vexed 

 and complicated, by attempting solution through a channel 

 which from the first was felt to be utterly wrong. 



THE committee. 



These gentlemen, iu laying before the judges the grounds 

 upon which their deliverance was to be given, have been suf- 

 ficiently explicit. No leas than fourteen separate items; and 

 lest offence might be taken at the merely mechanical turn 

 which such elaborate instructions might give to the judges' 

 position, they (the committee) wind up by a piece of admirable 

 soft sawder. The judges have had their rtvenge ; they have 

 set at nought the fourteen instructions, and returned the saw- 

 der. The plough which stands at the top of the judges' list 

 did not show one of the characteristics named under the head 

 '' Ploughing." The land-side was badly cut, the furrow 

 loosely laid over, the grass seen from ridge-end to ridge-end, 

 the furrows unequal, the finish soft snd tawdry, and the feer- 

 ing unquestionably one of the worst on the field. The young 

 man who held this plough knows his business well, but he felt 

 and expressed that he was making bad work ! Then why is 

 Mr. Howard's plough mentioned twice in the course of this re- 

 port ? Is it because it was the worst of its class ? or is it in 

 deference to an ill-concealed leaning towards that implement ? 

 And why have the ploughs made by Mr. Miller of Airntully, 

 Nos. 17 and 19, been entirely passed over, although they left 

 tfl'o of the best ridges on the field ? 



the judges. 



No one will deny these gentlemen the " devotion" which 

 they claim in the outset of their report. It must have been 

 obvious to every person present that an anxious desire to do 

 their duty characterised their whole proceedings; but it must 

 have been obvious to every practical man present, that they 

 had accepted an office to which the event shows them to be 

 little fitted. If the judges had announced that the plough 

 which was most successful in forming a " trapezoidal" furrow 

 would be preferred, the ploughmen would ha?e known how to 

 act ; but instead of that, they are allowed every one to do as 

 he thought best, and now they are told that " attempts were 

 made" to form the " proper furrow" in three marked and dif- 

 ferent ways. 



1st. " By an almost rectangular furrow, &c., as represented 

 in J. and R. Howard's wheel plough.'' Now to assert that 

 Howards' man attempted to form a trapezoidal furrow by 

 ploughing a rectangular one is simply absurd. The men 

 ploughed rectangularly because he thought it best ; and is a 

 plough to be condemned because its holder is not cognisant 

 of the*principle to which he has tacitly subscribed ? 



2nd. "By the pressing of a slightly crested furrow, by 

 means of a convex mould-board, as represented in R. Hornsby 

 and Sons' ploughs." If Mr. Hornsby's ploughs produced a 

 crested furrow, and if a crested furrow is the kind wanted, it 

 must be utter nonsense to accuse them of "attempting to 

 produce the proper form of furrow by pressing with a convex 

 mould-board." 



3rd. "By cutting the furrow in a trapezoidal form, &c., as 

 represented by Andrew Gray's swing plough. No. 4, and 

 James Finlayson's wheel plough, No. 6." Every man who 

 has studied ploughing knows that it is impossible to form a 

 semi-triangular furrow without cutting deeper at the laud-side 

 and leaving tlie bottom slightly concave, and it is most unfair 

 to represent Gray aud Finlayson's ploughs as the sole expo- 

 nents of that principle; yet the judges have done so by 

 placing Mr. Hornsby's ploughs next on the list of merit, 



