On the Draiicjlit of Ploughs. 11 



never since used any other, till last summer, when they sent me a 

 plough of a new make, which they considered of lighter draught. 



I could never perceive that I should be a gainer by exchanging 

 this Reading L 2, which I had used so long, (a one-wheel plough 

 with cast-iron body and wooden beam and handles,) for any other 

 I saw at work : its performance, I thought, was seldom exceeded, 

 and my men had little difficulty in miaintaining a more than re- 

 spectable position at the ploughing-matches ; and no other I 

 could so readily work with a pair of horses. I had rather a fancy 

 for the Scotch plough, admiring on a neighbouring farm its 

 apparent facility in cleaving and turning off the furrow ; but I 

 always thought I had an advantage in the wheel, which secured 

 me a regular depth, and an even-shaped furrow : however, I did 

 not perceive that this wheel really gave my horses an easier 

 draught. I found this L 2 at home in every species of work. In 

 drilling turnips it laid a neater and more level ridge (27-inch) 

 than my neighbour's Scotch plough. It was also applicable as a 

 one-horse implement, and I used it extensively in ploughing be- 

 tween ridges, stirring fallows, for the barley-seed furrow, &c., and 

 latterly in forming turnip ridges, instead of the double ridging 

 plough. Nevertheless, in many respects there was room in it 

 for improvement. 



Previously to the Liverpool meeting, Messrs. Barrett and Exall 

 sent me their new plough marked D P, to compare in draught 

 with their L 2. I made several trials with them both, and on 

 every occasion found the draught of D P full 2 stones the lighter. 



Experiment I. — At this time (early in last July) I collected a 

 few of my neighbours' ploughs. First came the now old-fashioned 

 wooden one-wheel plough, which I relinquished some years ago, 

 and which has now ceased to appear upon almost all the consider- 

 able farms except the most clayey. It is still occasionally used 

 by my next neighbour. To the village carpenter and blacksmith, 

 with its friction parts of wood and its wrought- iron share, it has 

 been a profitable implement ; but neither in draught, as will be 

 seen, any more than in repairs, can it have been very economical 

 to the farmer. The Watlington plough followed, which, within 

 a considerable circuit of the place in Oxfordshire from which it 

 takes its name, has superseded the above wooden plough, and 

 which is formed, like almost all the improved ploughs in the 

 south of England, with cast-iron body and share attached to a 

 wooden beam and handles. This has nothing very promising in 

 its appearance, though it is a favourite in its district. Lastly came 

 four varieties of Messrs. Barrett's ploughs, which are much used 

 in these and the adjoining counties. Of these were the L 2 and 

 the new make D P, and two, a single and a double-wheel, both 

 marked No. 8, but not havino- their own mould-boards, as I have 



