THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



537 



instead of six as heretofore, and Mr. Russell plumbs 

 quite as honest a measure. The work is worthy of the 

 occasion; and whether completely turned or nicely 

 laid, the warmest of partisans or direst of opponents all 

 alike admit of its excellence. John Ploughman, to he 

 sure, who has a special holiday to see what is going on, 

 will not have it. He is proverbially proud of his four- 

 horse team, and would submit with as ill a grace to three 

 or a pair, as the smart dragsman of " The Wonder,'* 

 or the " Tally-ho" would in days of yore have 

 consented to the loss of his leaders. His master, 

 too, does not much fancy giving up the point, and 

 talks about its being " all very well hei'c, but come on 

 to some land of mine, and then see what you could do 

 with them." Tliere is many an echo to this, while the 

 excitement only increases as the judges are observed 

 walking across the work. Mr. T. Abbott and Mr. 

 J. H. Solomon, In the place of Mr. Punnett, are " the 

 Kent men"; and Mi\ Marmaduke Walker, of Adding- 

 ton, near Croyden, with Mr. Hipwell, from Cheam, in 

 the same county, are retained on the other side . Of 

 these Mr. Walker said " that never in the whole 

 course of his life had he laboured under greater diffi- 

 culties than on that occasion. The judges ran in pairs, 

 two looking after the turnrise, and two after the iron 

 ploughs; and each, no doubt, had a little prejudice in 

 the matter, which they could not throw off all at once. 

 For himself, he was an advocate of the round plough, 

 because it was the cheapest; but it was arranged that 

 no such considerations as that were to guide them ; 

 and after a great deal of trouble and pains they could 

 come to no decided conclusion one way or the other." 

 While Mr. Solomon " hoped he went to the match not 

 prejudiced, but there were certain points in the old 

 Kent plough which the advocates of that system could 

 not forego. Much of the work of the iron plough he 

 could not but highly commend, but the ugly beginning in 

 each case could not be overlooked ; and that, with the 

 backs to the furrows, were the chief splitting points. 

 Beyond this, he thought the work of the iron plough 

 was done exceedingly well ; and, in fact, both ploughs 

 were so equal in this respect that it was impossible to 

 come to a decision." The official decision, as an- 

 nounced at the dinner, was, consequently, none what- 

 ever : — " In viewing the ploughing between the turnrise 

 and Howai-d's iron plough, the judges find the work so 

 nearly equal in merit that they cannot agree satis- 

 factorily to themselves in awarding the prize. They 

 therefore recommend Mr. Elvey and Mr. Russell either 

 to withdraw or select an umpire, as was proposed 

 in the first instance." An umpire had, in fact, 

 been agreed to by the judges originally ap- 

 pointed, but Mr. Fisher Hobbs wrote in answer 

 to the application that it was impossible for him to be 

 present ; and no one else was named in his stead. On 

 hearing the decree, Mr. Elvey at once proposed that 

 he and Mr. Russell should admit the merit of each 

 other's plough, and give a certain sum as an honora- 

 rium to the men. But Mr. Russell did not agree so 

 readily to so inconclusive a conclusion. "He quite 

 concurred in the remarks which had been made as to 



the difficulty of coming to a decision, and he walked 

 over the field several times before he could mako up 

 his own mind. He rather regretted that his first sug- 

 gestion, that judges should be selected from gentlemen 

 not connected with the county, had not been can-ied 

 out, and then there would not have been that prejudice 

 which naturally existed. Ho did not care for the ap- 

 pointment of an arbitrator, but would suggest that a 

 return match should take place in the neighbourhood 

 where he resided, and Mr. Elvey might select the 

 field." Mr. Elvey, however, distinctly declined this 

 offer, fair and reasonable as it sounds; and Mr. Russell 

 had, as a consequence, no alternative but to leave the 

 question, settled or unsettled, as it is. 



But it was clearly for the Kent men to go on. As 

 the case now stands, Mr. Russell has proved that ho 

 can plough as well with three horses as Mr. Elvey can 

 with four. His teams were in no ways distressed, al- 

 though we believe the general character of his farm- 

 horses is by no means up to that high standard his 

 opponents, deem it so necessary to have. Then we 

 imagine that no one, for a moment, will attempt to 

 maintain that the Kentish plough is worked with any- 

 thing like the same ease to the man as the Bedford one. 

 And, further, as to the result : Mr. Russell and his 

 brothers were all brought up to the use of the wooden 

 plough, and it was only gradually that they came to 

 discard it in favour of the iron one. Since they have 

 done so, " they find they can giow-more corn, turnips, 

 and mutton." This is at a less expense, of course; 

 because three horses eat less than four, and the harder 

 a man's powers are taxed the sooner ho will wear 

 out. Still, in considering the question it must be 

 remembered that the wheel-plough put to work at 

 Bowhill was not just what may have been previously 

 tried in Kent. Mr. Elvey said, at the dinner, before 

 he knew what the judges had determined upon, 

 " that even if beaten he should consider it to be no 

 discredit ; on the contrary, he should feel some satisfac* 

 tion in having been beaten by a gentleman who had 

 brought down here a plough worth looking at, not like 

 the miserable Scotch implements which new-comers 

 into this part of the country had sometimes brought 

 with thein, though the result generally was that in a 

 few years either the owners were gone, or smothered in 

 their own weeds." And Mr. Whitaker admitted 

 that "we had been apt, perhaps, to despise the 

 iron'ploughs; which was probably owing to a parcel 

 of little trumpery things having been brought into 

 this county as iron ploughs, instead of the first- 

 class implements they had seen that day." 

 The iron ploughs had in fact been made especially for 

 the match, from now castings and mouldings, and they 

 only reached Farningham on the Friday before the 

 trial, the order for them having been received on the 

 Tuesday previous ! It was allowed, moreover, that never 

 had they been so effective, and on thi? the whole dis- 

 cussion still depends. Will a new-fashioned iron 

 plough with three horses do your work as well as an 

 old-fashioned wooden one with four ? Expciioncc now 

 goes to say that it will 



M M 2 



