THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



333 



lieve by thia that he is as fond of farming as he ever 

 was of deer-stalking, or marshallinjf liis clan on high 

 days and holidays. Another plouprhing match is an- 

 nounced for the second week in March at Strathord, 

 near the Stanley station on the Scottish North Eastern 

 Railway, under the especial auspices of his Grace. 

 " The match excites great Interest, the entries in all 

 being no less than thirty-one." These, of course, in- 

 cluded wheel ploughs and swing ploughs, and as cer- 

 tainly the names of Howard and Hornsby. We are a 

 little nervous at first as to the appearance of our other 

 great English plough maker, but it is only for a mo- 

 ment we have to endui-e any such suspense. " As 

 showing how keenly the competition was gone into, we 

 may mention that Messrs. Ransomes and Sims brought 

 with them from Ipswich a pair of beautiful Suffolk 

 horses." And then one involuntarily pictures the 

 mugnificent pairs we saw in the plough field in August, 

 and tries to estimate how even the clean-legged 

 chesnuts might figure amongst them. 



There is no unseemly haste in coming to con- 

 clusions at Strathord. For two days are the Judges 

 earin stly engaged in investigating the merits of the 

 different ploughs. And these Judges are themselves 

 all men of repute; amongst them Mr. Stephens, the 

 well-known Editor of " The Book of the Farm ;" Mr. 

 Hope, of Fenton-barns — perhaps the first farmer of 

 the Lothians; and Mr. M'Lagan, a gentleman 

 known to be admirably qualified for such an office. 

 By tlie end of the first day they have cut down the 

 thirty to tea, and of those standing in there are Hornsby 

 and Howard from the English, and Andrew Gray of 

 Meigle, Robertson of Guildtown, Findlayson of the 

 Bridge of Allan, and Douglas Allan of Caputh, from 

 among the Scotch makers. On the second they run 

 these ties out, and the Edinburgli edict is at once 

 up?et. The Scotch swing plough, made by Gray of 

 Meigle, is placed first ; another Scotch-manufactured 

 implement, but a wheel-plough, in the name of Find- 

 layson, is second ; and then the Hornsby's come in for 

 third and fourth, and Gray again fifth. The Edinburgh 

 wiimer now finishes nowhere, and people for a moment 

 confess tliat they cannot make it out. 



The North British Agriculturist reports that ' ' the 

 fields were not deemed very suitable for the trials ;" and 

 that " this is to be regretted, as it may tend to deter 

 the English implement-makers from coming forward 

 to compete at Scottish ploughing-matches." We should 

 hope not. The further these trials are carried the more 

 interesting will they become. Of course this award 

 leaves the question of swing or wheel plough a more 

 open one than ever — at least so far as Scotland is 

 concerned. It may be difficult as yet to reconcile 

 the unmistakable excellence and superiority of How- 

 ard's plough at Edinburgh, and its utter want of dis- 

 tinction a few months alterwards at Strathord. The 

 only ostensible solution is that "it all depends upon 

 the Judges." But we must repeat that these are 

 men of high standing, although it might be interesting 

 to ascertain what experience they have in the use of 

 the wheel- plough, and whether they have ever 

 had it in work on their holdings. Local association 

 and habit may have more influence over us than we 

 may be inclined to admit; and we would suggest that 

 for the future, when the English Houses are expected to 

 enter, that one if not two English Judges, out of so many 

 as a quorum of five, should be appointed. As it is, our 

 friends will, perhaps, come back and say " The ground 

 was bad and the Judges were Scotch." But, then, the 

 Judges were all Scotchmen at Edinburgh, and this 

 makes the result yet more incomprehensible. 



We are by no means trying to make excuses for any 

 pational discomfiture. As it was, the Hornsbvs took 



very good rank ; and, as wheel versus swing-plough, 

 we might understand their being worsted. But, then, 

 the second is a wheel-plough ; and the Scotch farmers, 

 on such evidence, will go home again strong in the 

 conclusion thut not only is the swing-plough 

 still the best in the world, but that even when 

 it comes to making a wheel one, the Scotch is 

 again the best. In fact it is not so clear, after all, but 

 that we get our most valuable hints in the art of plough- 

 making from Scotchmen. The Octoberpart of the High- 

 land Society's Journal furnishesa very good report of the 

 Edinburgh Show ; and in this we find it declared that, 

 " if there is one feature in the exhibition of implements 

 more worthy of notice than another, it is the greater 

 convexity of the mould-boards which the English 

 manufacturers have attached to their ploughs. And in 

 none is this more oljservable than in the plough of 

 Hornsby, which was entered not for competition, but 

 for exhibition only. In sli irt, in the principal English 

 ploughs exhibited — namely, Howard's and Hornsby's — 

 there is a iiearer approach to the Scotch ploughs in the 

 setting of the irons and tlie form of the mould-board 

 this year than has ever been observed before. To what 

 are we to attribute this ? The Duke of Athole, Presi- 

 dent of this Society, taking a great interest in the prac- 

 tical details of agriculture, and having purchased some 

 English ploughs, resolved to have the merits of the 

 English and Scotch ploughs compared and tested. 

 He accordingly organized a plougliing-match, open to 

 all makers of ploughs, which was held at Stanley, in 

 Perthshire, last spring. Some of the English makers, 

 or their representatives, attended, who were convinced, 

 by the work executed by the different ploughs, that the 

 form of furrow, and the placing it in the position to 

 form the seed-bed practised in Scotland, were the best 

 for general purposes. The result of this day's work 

 and observation at Stanley was the improved jilough of 

 Hornsby." This, it must be understood, was on the 

 occasion of the first match at Strathord, just a year 

 since. And, again, another passage may actually 

 account for the Bedford plough being so superior at 

 Edinburgh, and so inferior at Strathord : " Owing to 

 the drought which prevailed last summer, the soil of 

 the trial-field, naturally friable and gravelly, was 

 very hard, and difficult to turn over, and few 

 of the ploughs went sweetly in it. It was evident 

 that the wheel-ploughs had the advantage of the swing- 

 ones in the soil, as the wheels kept them at a uniform 

 depth, and left a aiore even bottom in the furrow, lu 

 summei'-ploughing generally wheels will have the ad- 

 vantage. For this reason — and as the objection found 

 to tlie use of wheels by those who have tried them in 

 Scotland is on account of their being easily clou'ged 

 when the surface of the land is damp, and who have for 

 this reason discontinued them — would it not be ad- 

 visable to divide the ploughs into two classes, ' wheel' 

 and ' swing V Howard's plough vias facile princeps of 

 those competing ; but Hornsby, though not competing, 

 received permission to exhibit the working of his 

 plough, which elicited the admiration of both farmers 

 and implement-makers." And then, naturally, we 

 turn to the heading of this Report, and see it is by a 

 gentleman we have already had occasion to make fa- 

 vourable mention of, in the course of these remarks — 

 Mr. Peter McLagan jun., of Pumpherston. Fortu- 

 nately, as we take it, Mr. McLagan was not only one 

 of the Judges at Strathord (he was not at Edinburgh), 

 but he it is that has been appointed to draw up the 

 Report of the trials, and the r-easons for the award. 

 The paper in the Journal shows. how capable he is of 

 doing this, while the Strathord Report itself must be in 

 every way one of the most interesting that has ever beeu 

 issued. Never, indeed, was ojie so much require<Jf 



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