THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



retain the firmlj'-framed mellowness of a new plough— the 

 desirablenesa of which all practical men are agreed upon, aa 

 an old shaky plough, of whatever make, is of far heavier 

 draught than when it sported in pristine glory. There is no 

 reason why one of these ploughs should not, with moderate 

 care and attention, be equally serviceable at the close of the 

 longest lease or " life-rent" aa at its commencement. A well- 

 known East Lothian agriculturist, who has successfully used 

 them on his farm, says that his men consider them more diffi- 

 cult to turn at the end of the field. Good ploughmen in the 

 south complain of swiug ploughs for this and other reasons. 

 Custom would speedily remove the barrier in either case. At 

 all events, we find Scotch ploughmen in England almost in- 

 variably preferring the wheel plough, and acquiring the plan 

 of halancimj on the furrow xcheel in turning at the land's end. 

 With deep ploughing, say eleven or twelve inches, this is in- 

 deed tight work when turning to the left. But as far as turn- 

 ing is concerned, wheel ploughs could be much more advan- 

 tageously worked in Scotland than in England, since the 

 country is generally laid out in larger fields and wider lands. 



Before coming to the i'nportant question of draught, there 

 is another objection to which we would refer. It is obviously 

 the interest of the farmer to obtain an implement of the most 

 generally-useful character ; not a plough or a harrow which 

 could only be economically worked on one portion of his farm, 

 while for the remainder it was valueless. We by no means 

 advocate the mullum in parvo principle as desirable for farm 

 uteasds generally. There are old-fashioned ploughs, such as 

 the Kentish turn-wrest, which may be converted into a broad- 

 ahare, scarifier, or horse-hoe, and do all these operations mode- 

 rately well. Such great conglomerations are often, in plain 

 language, great humbugs. But a Scotch farmer often wishes 

 a plough which will not only do its legitimate turn-over work, 

 but can also be used, by a " ribbing" process, if memory serves 

 aright, for opening and closing the bean, potato, and turnip 

 ridges. Here, again, the wheel plough is complained of, 

 though with what justice we cannot profess to say, as we in- 

 variably use and prefer the double mould or ridging plough for 

 these objects. However, in the Warwick neighbourhood, we 

 find thst they are pretty freely adapted for this purpose by the 

 addition of a small block of wood to the forepart of the frame, 

 on the near side. And we have there seen, on farms well 

 managed by Iloxburgh men, ridging of a character that would 

 please the taste of the nicest connoisseur. Taking Howard's 

 P. P. plough, for instance, you can use it for this purpose in 

 May or June ; apply a paring share to it, and skira foul 

 stubb'es, two inches deep, in September, turn over the clover 

 or " seeds" for wheat in October ; divest it of the mould-board, 

 and add a penetrating share, so as to form a first-rate subsoil 

 plough (following another plough) at Christmas, on the land 

 for next season's roots. In these varied capacities, saving the 

 ridging above referred to, we have repeatedly used this plough, 

 and found it as good a common plough as ever when the parts 

 were replaced. A Berwickshire friend, now farming his own 

 property iu this county, who has had an extensive experience 

 on both sides of the Border, says he is convinced that " no 

 plough should be without wheels; but a good wheel plough 

 should also be a good swmg plough ; aud there is no difficulty 

 in obtaining such ploughs. I do not imder all circumstances 

 use the wheels." The occasions in which he dispenses with 

 the wheels are probably in the cross-ploughing of cloddy land, 

 or on wet sticky soil, whore the land wheel clogs, and in which 

 case a " foot" should be used iuatead of the wheel. A very 

 practical ftllow-couutryman, Mr. Bower, of Long Bennington, 

 writes me on this subject, that be finds another great advantage 

 in theae ploughs. " When I break up," says he, " clover 



stubbles for wheat, after harvest, iu dry weather — which I con- 

 sider the best season for strong soils— I can plough with a wheel 

 plough when a spring plough would scarcely face it at all. 

 I also use Howard's in breaking up land for green crops, and 

 iu ploughing ten inches deep with four horses, without strain- 

 ing or hurting the plough in the least." For the latter descrip- 

 tion of work, our own experience is, that a heavier plough, of 

 the same make, is invaluable. Some agriculturists express 

 their decided conviction that on the lighter descriptions of 

 soils alone are wheel ploughs any considerable advantage ; 

 while others say that on heavy soils and deep loams the most 

 favourable comparative results are obtained. We would strike 

 the balance midway, and eay that for all soils, saving very 

 stony land, or steep hill-sides, their use would be found de- 

 sirable. Tnis reminds us of the noted report given respecting 

 Ransome's ploughs, at the Southampton meeting of the R. 

 A. S. E., iu days gone by. The two-wheeled ploughs, one- 

 wheel ploughs, and swing ploughs were tried in classes, both 

 on heavy and light land, according to the tastes of the exhi- 

 bitors. " By this arrangement not only was the quality done 

 by each implement displayed, but a fair opportunity offered 

 itself for observing and comparing the quality of the work as 

 executed in the same soil, and under the same circumstances, 

 by the three classes of the implements. The skill of the indi- 

 vidual construction was also manifested ; and on this occasion 

 the remarkable result came out, that one particular plough ex- 

 celled all the others, whether working with two wheels, with 

 oue wheel, or without a wheel. This plough was one of the 

 three in the field, from the manufactory of Messrs. Ransome, 

 marked Y L. When fitted with two wheels, its performance 

 was like that of a planing machine ; the furrow slices were cut 

 vertically from the land, the floors or bottoms were left per- 

 fectly flat and clean, aud the slices were deposited at an angle 

 of about 45", with such truth that they could be turned back 

 to their original horizontal bed without gaining or losing 

 ground. According to the generally received principles of 

 perfect ploughing (whether they be correct and equally suit- 

 able to all soils and modes of culture or not), it is imagined 

 that practice has, in this instance, closely approached to their 

 fulfilment. How did it happen that the same plough proved 

 to be equally fit for light and heavy land ? Messrs. Ransome 

 changed the mould-board from one adapted to light land to one 

 suited to heavy land, an alteration effected iu less than five mi- 

 nutes ; and abundant proof was afforded to, and acknowledged 

 by, the judges, that one given form of mould-board is utterly 

 inadequate to suit both soils" {vide Jour., vol. v., page 367). 

 This firm has been in the plough trade for a long series of 

 year?, and as far back as 1785, the late Robert Ransome, of 

 Ipswich, took out a patent for " making shares of cast-iron." 

 Since then, other candidates have made most rapid and suc- 

 cessful advances for public favour — so much so that the name, 

 Howard, Ransome, or Ball, may almost be regarded as the 

 synonym for a first-class wheel plough. 



But some people tell us that on land of a hilly character the 

 wheel plough can never make headway, as it is heavier, and 

 apparently more unwieldy than the swing construction. Now, 

 althouRh we cannot here boast of mountains rivalling the noble 

 (i'rampian chain, there are yet elevations under culture which 

 manifest the same class of difficulties as may be met among 

 their glens and brae-sides. Take the Cotswolds, in Glouces- 

 tershire, for instance. On tliese escarpments will be found a 

 system of husbandry peculiar to the locality, b\it admirably 

 ada])ted thereto. If my reader has ever travelled the bleak 

 road from Cirencester to Stow-on-the-Wold, on a biting, blus- 

 tering morning in ISIarch, he requires not to be told that there 

 are heavy physical obstacles with which the district has to con- 



