THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



of the rapid successLoa of crops which the steam plough 

 is to give us the power of producing. How pitiably 

 slow have been improvements in husbandry ! 



la the year 1791 Mr. Ducket constructed a new 

 " horse-hoe" (or rather a grubbing implement or 

 scarifier) "entirely of iron." It consisted of two 

 commoa plough-shares, that worked, according as 

 they were winged, from 20 to 24 inches' breadth of 

 ground ; and so strongly made that it could be worked 

 at any depth with four horses. This implement (much 

 resembling that which made such good work for Mr. 

 Fowler at Warwick) was for working pea, bean, and 

 other stubbles, to prepare them for ploughing ; and also 

 so effectually as to put in crops of rye, tares, and 

 turnips without any ploughing at all. The operation 

 for this latter purpose was done by going first just below 

 the couch, m order not to cut the blenches in pieces ; 

 then strong coarse harrows, and afterwards finer ones, 

 cleaned the rows across the field, and thus made the 

 loamy sand fit for drilling, Mr. Ducket scarified a 

 clover ley ; and, carting off the roots, &c., drilled the 

 wheat without any ploughing. " Bad husbandry !" 

 said Young ; " the roots of the clover are the food of 

 the wheat." " No ;" replied he, '' wheat on this light 

 soil is apt to be root-fallen ; but in this method, it has a 

 firm soil to strike into." " Great talents and great hus- 

 bandry !" exclaims Young. " It is in the application of 

 uncommon practices to peculiar demands that genius is 

 shown." 



As an example of autumn cultivation on tenacious 

 clay land, Young describes Mr. Arbuthnot's mode of 

 tilling bean stubbles for wheat with the Isle of Thanet 

 " shim," a transverse knife 3 feet long and G inches 

 broad, set dipping at an angle of 45 degrees. " This 

 cuts the surface of the field about 2^ or 3 inches deep, 

 through stubble weeds and everything ; after which it 

 is harrowed till every bit of trumpery is got out ; and 

 then the shocks of bean-sheaves are moved, and that 

 part served the same. Few other instruments will 

 effect this : the plough buries so that no harrows will 

 get it up again ; but by keeping all upon the surface it 

 is easily destroyed." This management was pursued 

 with increasing profit for several years, until the gentle- 

 man left his farm in 1797. 



The following passage is an interesting one in the his- 

 tory of agricultural inventions ; and the reader will be 

 able to draw his own lessons from it in reference to pre- 

 sent practice : 



In 1804 Thos. Estcourt, Esq., M.P. for Cricklade, 

 and a member of the Board of Agriculture, published 

 in the "Annals" a description of a new scuffler — " An 

 instrument, lately invented by a tenant of mine, Mr. 

 Robert Emerson, which acts as a scuffler or tillage- 

 scarifier. I saw it at work last Thursday (in August) 

 in a clover ley, which had been much trod by driving a 

 herd of forty cows over it backward and forward twice 

 a day for the last six weeks to some meadows that lay 

 beyond it. It cut the land throughout about three 

 inches deep, and six feet in width every length; and did 

 the work so clean that on moving away the loosened 

 soil we found it underneath as smooth as a boarded 



floor. On going over the same ground a second time it 

 cut about six inches in depth from the surface ; the 

 width, of course, the same as before. It was worked 

 by five horses with ease ; and one, if not two of the 

 horses, might very well have been spared the last time 

 of the two. After the second time the land was as fine 

 as it was possible to make a garden, without drag or 

 harrow. It will, and usually does, go over five acres of 

 unbroken stubble or clover-ley at the above depth in 

 seven hours, and without the least apparent distress to 

 the cattle, and without turning a hair. It requires no 

 holding ; and the only objection one of the workmen has 

 to using it is that ' he looks like a fool, following it 

 without anything to do.' It turns at the end of the 

 land as short and as safe as a crane-necked chariot, 

 without help from the ploughman. It very seldom 

 chokes with muck or rubbish; and if it does, a strike 

 with the paddle clears it. Mr, Emerson, the inventor, 

 jmt in his turnip crop this year toithout the 

 assistance of plough, drag, or harroto (the land was 

 light and rather stony), by going over it three times 

 with this instrument. I never saw land in better order ; 

 and this crop is now very regular and promising. The 

 last time it went over this turnip land was chiefly for 

 the purpose of covering the manure, which being very 

 rotten, it performed very effectually. How far this may 

 be called a new invention, however, is more than I 

 or he can determine ; but I have never yet seen or heard 

 of any one like it. I should also mention, that the depth 

 it is to go may be regulated at pleasure, and the whole 

 instrument may be so raised off the ground, except the 

 wheels, as to convey it without difficulty from one place 

 to another to any distance. Its strength is such as to 

 bid defiance to ill-usoge, except a sledge-hammer is 

 used. I cannot yet say what the price of it will be, as 

 only one has been made, which has been so frequently 

 altered, to remedy different defects which were found 

 out from time to time in its use, that no estimate from 

 it can be formed of the expense. The inventor is a 

 sensible, plain, honest man, in the occupation of a con- 

 siderable farm, and was formerly in my service as my 

 steward and bailiff. And jf it proves to be so generally 

 useful as it promises, I think he should be remunerated 

 for the time, thought, and money it has cost hina (and 

 I know he has been incessantly employed on it for the 

 last two years), by a patent or some other way." 



In July, 1806, Mr. Estcourt wrote some additional 

 particulars : " The following anecdote you will esteem 

 a strong proof of the merits of Mr. Robert Emerson's 

 scufHer. I lent that which he made for me in Septem- 

 ber last to a tenant, who at Michaelmas last entered on 

 a farm of mine, he being then unprovided with a team 

 of horses. He borrowed at the same time one team 

 each from two neighbouring farmers, which, with their 

 ploughs, were all employed together to prepare a bean 

 stubble for sowing wheat. These two farmers happened 

 both to meet on the ground to see how their teams went 

 on with the work, and were so struck with the superior 

 work of my team with the scuffler, that they instantly 

 agreed to request Mr. Emerson to make one for their 

 joint use. He did so : they have worked it all the 



