Implements and Tillage. 119 



though the standard types of ploughs made by the great firms 

 of implement makers are found all over the country — I mean 

 those with a mould board of fair length, turning an unbroken 

 rectangular furrow — yet in many districts with which I have 

 practical acquaintance a local form of plough still holds its own. 

 Here in East Sussex we have the old " foot plough," a simple 

 form of wooden turn- wrist plough, having an L shaped standard, 

 or foot, in place of wheels, and turning a wide furrow which, 

 though not so much broken as the digger's furrow, is still 

 thoroughly cracked so that the action of a winter's frost has 

 full play on it. Then in Norfolk they have the old form with 

 " gallows " and a short breast turning slightly broken furrows, 

 and in Suffolk the short breast is also preferred. On the 

 Berkshire hills the " screwhead " ploughs still hold their own ; 

 and in Kent the " hare back " completely inverted furrow, 

 turned by the ponderous wooden ploughs or the more modern 

 iron balance ploughs, has no competitors. 



It is difficult to say how far local usage may be relied on ; 

 I understand it is in the North and Midlands that the 

 unbroken rectangular furrow is preferred. But speaking 

 generally, the slightly broken furrow seems the most useful 

 form and most in request nowadays. That is the form of 

 furrow generally preferred on the multiple ploughs to be drawn 

 by tractors, and it may be assumed that the owner of a tractor 

 will be as up to date in his ploughs as in his method of 

 drawing them. 



One advantage in the present day of the slightly broken 

 furrow slice is that the work requires less skill, or rather, that 

 the bad effects of lack of skill are less apparent than with a 

 quite solid furrow. Bad ploughmen are more common than 

 good ones nowadays. It is in ploughing for a corn seed bed 

 that the effects of liadly ploughed rectangular solid furrows 

 are most apparent. Where land has been well ploughed with 

 even furrows well packed together and showing a good crest, 

 the harrows will produce plenty of mould, while the unbroken 

 base of the furrow gives the firm bottom required by cereals. 

 But with bad work, where the furrow slices are not of even 

 size, some standing up on edge, some flung perfectly flat, on 

 sul)sequently harrowing an uneven tilth is produced ; the 

 harrows break the upright furrows into large clods and make 

 no impression at all on the flat ones. So the cultivator is 

 brought OTit to tear the ground m/; into a tilth, where the 

 harrows on w-ell-ploughed furrows woiakl break it down, and 

 the firm bottom is consequently lost. Now, with a fairly short 

 breast you get a slightly broken furrow which minimises these 

 faults of bad workmanship. In light land districts double- 

 furrow ploughs are now very common, but their use is limited 



