THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



243 



tend. A stiff north-easter blowing off the Scandinavian range, 

 and eddying among the many deep dells of theCotswolds, will 

 remind him of crests to be surmounted, and braes to be ploughed 

 by implements of some kind or another. The soil is often thiu 

 and brashy, the rock at a very shallow depth, and stones in 

 many cases numerous. Surely, here, then, the improved wheel 

 plough must hide its diminished head ! In many cases it does 

 so. We find the wooden beam and handles prevailing, with 

 cast mould-board, and wrougbt-iron shares. These are turned 

 out in the locality much the same as is practised in Scotland. 

 But the mould-board is often on a very incorrect principle — 

 occasionally manufactured of wood— and the draught dyna- 

 mometrically severe. There are, however, exceptions even here. 

 First-class wheel ploughs are making a steady, onward progress. 

 If a leaf of practice is worth a volume of theory we are ready 

 to adduce the former. A farmer on the Cotswolds, whose 

 practice is second to none I have elsewhere seen, kindly 

 addresses me on this point. He is the occupier of over one 

 thousand acres in the neighbourhood of Northleach : — "I have 

 worked (says he) Howard's ploughs for the last three or four 

 years, and consider them the best for general purposes, doing 

 their work well, and much superior to any others I ever had 

 I think them better adapted for ploughing light stony land, 

 aud having two wheels you can the more easily set them— with 

 greater truth ; and when set, requiring comparatively little 

 strength to hold. You will in very stony land break a few 

 shares ; but their cost replacing is not expensive ; neither any 

 blacksmith to pay— a great nuisance saved, as they are very 

 doubtful after being ' done,' and frequently the plough goes 

 badly. I work twelve of them in preference to others. They 

 are particularly good for ploughing our old seeds ~(' clover') — 

 for wheat, and old sainfoin for swedes and turnips after burn- 

 ing—a system not pursued iu your neighbourhood." 



It does not follow that because an implement is iu itself 

 heavier than another, that its draught is either literally or 

 proportionally greater. Look at the case of a six- horse portable 

 engine aud thrashing machine — the former weighing fifty-five 

 hundred-weight, and the latter three-fourths of a ton less. 

 Yet on the road it is not rieedful to put more strength to one 

 part than to the other. And my own impression is, that of 

 the two, the lighter part is the heaviest draught for the horses. 

 This arises from the greater longitudinal as well as lateral 

 spread of the thrashing machine between the wheels ; while 

 the engine is a firm compact body, occupying less space. So 

 of wheel ploughs, which you often find from fifty to seventy- 

 five per cent, heavier than a swing plough for the like work- 

 At Paris, in 1855, Ball's plough, which looks fully as heavy as 

 any other, registered 380 lbs., with a furrow of 8 in. by 10 in. ; 

 while at the trial on Mr. Alexander's farm, near Laurencekirk, 

 in November last, one of the best swing ploughs registered 

 694 lbs., when cutting 6|in.by9|in. I readily admit the 

 comparison to be incomplete, without a knowledge of the tfna- 

 city of the respective soils, and other attendant circumstances, 

 although it does seem that the difference is indeed great. 

 However, there was also one of Howard's ploughs on the 

 ground, at Bent of Halkerton, which registered 369 lbs. at 

 6f in. by 9 in. ; while its most successful compeer at the same 

 dimensions is given at 560 lbs. Surely, there must be some 

 ground for reasoning from a fact like this. At another trial 

 in my native district, also in November last, at Carcary, near 

 Brechin, there was at least one hundredweight of difference 

 in favour of the wheel plough, as compared with the swing at 

 the like depth. Equally successful results have been reported 

 from Athlone, and the neighbourhood of Perth ; the former 

 ploughing match being adjudged by men who stand iu the 

 first rank of Scottish agriculturists— Messrs. Watson, Keillor ; 



Dickson, Saughton Mains ; aud Elliott, Laighwood. The Perth- 

 shire Advertiser, of November 25th, says that "the time for 

 executing the allotted task of a quarter of an acre to each 

 plough was three hours and fifteen minutes. About thirty 

 minutes before the time fixed, the Bedford plough had finished 

 its work, and one of the Scotch ploughs within three minutes ; 

 but a considerable number of the latter having still a good deal 

 of ground to turn over, the time was extended for half an hour» 

 and even with this extension, many of the ploughmen bad 

 great difficulty in bringing their work to a close." We must 

 not omit to add, that one of the Scotch ploughs showed the 

 same draught on the dynamometer, viz., three cwt., as Howard's. 

 Having repeatedly tested the draught of a good plough, under 

 different circumstances — such as increased or lessened depth 

 or width, with the coulter at different angles, with wheels and 

 without, with or without the akim, drawing from the end or 

 middle of the beam, or from the body, with additional weight 

 on the plough, at different paces, uphill, or down-hili, or level 

 work, et hoc genus omne—ve know full well the care that is 

 needed, in order to ensure a correct reading of the dynamo- 

 meter. We would almost go 60 far as to say that the nice 

 fluctuations may be given either way, if the object is to serve 

 a given purpose. Plate XII. in the Cyclopedia of Agriculture, 

 with the corresponding article at p. 724, from Morton's well- 

 known pen, will fully illustrate our meaning. But the Scottish 

 trials appear to have been made with care and correctness, and 

 often in the presence of those whose tastes were not in favour 

 of the superior implement. It is true that the ploughman was 

 a first-rate hand, but he had to compete with first-rate hands. 

 It is true that the wheel ploughs were the best of their kind ; 

 but it is not less true that in these instances in which the 

 approximation was closest, local plough-makers bad become 

 aware of the trials, and lent their aid in bringing new coulters 

 and shares — and in more than one instance, new ploughs — all 

 of which were in advance of those usually found in practice. 

 Whereas, at the present moment, I doubt not but many ploughs 

 in the north will show nearly twice the draught of a good 

 wheel plough, with the same size of furrow slice. I make this 

 remark cautiously, but not without fair proof thereof. 



As a whole, these and other trials exhibit the draught as a 

 saving of fully one-third in favour of the wheel plough. This 

 is a matter worthy of the deepest consideration. With prime 

 wheat not much over Ss. per bushel there is every reason for 

 retrenchment. And if the writer is correct in his remarks 

 here is an item of an important character. The saving on one 

 plough being considerable, how much more must it be when 

 multiplied by the ploughs of a large farm or of braid Scotland — 

 "Frae Maideukirk to Johnie Groat's !" 

 Sir John Forbes lately remarked, that " with three and a 

 half millions of arable acres in Scotland, a saving of aa hour 

 per acre iu ploughing three-fifths of it would be a gain to the 

 country of 100,000 working days of tea hours each ; a saving 

 of 1 cwt. of draught in that operation (to 150,000 work horses) 

 represents an enormous amount of tear and wear." To enter 

 a little further into details, we may take the arable acreage of 

 Scotland at fifty-six thousand acres over Sir John's estimate. 

 Now, according to the statistical return for 1837, this would 

 give the following extent of crops on a farm of 500 acres :— 

 59 acres wheat aud barley. 

 136 „ oats, rye, and here. 

 9 „ beans, pras, and vetches. 

 91 „ roots and fallow. 

 205 „ clover. 



Total 500 „ 

 Our object is not to construct a rotat'on, aud we, therefore, 

 follow the statistical order; but taking the clover, or "seeds," 



