186 Journal of Agriculture, Victoria. [11 March, 1918. 



which increased its usefulness. But for many years the plough remained 

 at best a clumsy implement, which served to stir the soil to only a very 

 slight depth, and did not cover the weeds and grass as a good plough 

 should do. A ])eculiar custom in some countries was to draw ploughs 

 by tying them to the tails of horses or oxen. They had no harness- 

 makers such as we have, and leather harness was unknown. So tying 

 a plough to the horse's tail was about as handy and cheap a way of 

 '■ hitching up " the horse or ox as could be thought of. After a while 

 ])eople began to see that this was a cruel practice, and laws were passed 

 making it a crime to plough in this manner. The plough of those days 

 left the soil lumpy, and the farmer or his sons broke up the clods with 

 a club, one of the reasons for ploughing being to make the soil fine 

 and granular. A lumpy soil will not germinate seeds well, for, to make 

 seeds come up quickly, the soil should be fine enough to touch the seed 

 on all sides. A lumpy soil will not grow large and healthy plants, for 

 the roots find it difficult to obtain food and water. All the ploughs 

 mentioned above were made of wood ; but they used to break easily, and 

 would wear out quickly, so some one made one partly of iron, placing 

 the iron on the parts of the plough that used to wear out first ; the other 

 parts were still made of wood. Later the ploughs were made of iron, 

 except the handles. Strange to say, as a new and useful idea is often- 

 times ridiculed, so it was with the iron plough. Some farmers said 

 it made the weeds grow, others that it poisoned the soil, and many 

 refused to use it. However, this strange opinion soon died out, and the 

 wooden ploughs can now be found only in the museums. — The Octago 

 Witness. 



GUNFIRE AND RAINFALL. 



There used to exist, and it exists even to the present day, a popular 

 belief that the explosion of guns induces rainfall, and special guns 

 were constructed with the object of bringing down falls of rain during 

 dry seasons. Several experiments to test this theory were made some 

 years ago in Queensland by means of kites and guns, but all resulted in 

 failure. 



In an article in the London Times of 21st December, 1914, we find 

 the following notes on the subject : — 



'' An impression has arisen in some quarters that the heavy and per- 

 sistent rains recently experienced in this country (Great Britain) are 

 attributable to abnormal atmospheric disturbances produced by heavy 

 gun-firing at the seat of war. The idea is by no means novel, and, 

 like other meteorological myths (such, for instance, as the belief in 

 thunderbolts and the supposed influence of the moon upon our weather), 

 it seems to possess a bvillet-proof hide and takes any amount of killing. 



