424 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



deemed indispensable to the proper performance of their worn. ; 

 in which matter I beg leave to say I always entirely differed from 

 them in opinion, having never yet discovered any reason 

 why men, who assume to belong to the order of rational animals, 

 should, by their passion and the indecency and profaneness of 

 their language, degrade themselves below the brute animals 

 which they undertake to govern. Now, in all the particulars 

 which I have pointed out, the ploughing here will be done exactly 

 according to a prescribed form. I sa*id, in my first report, that 

 the ploughed land resembled a ruffle just come from under the 

 crimping iron. The representation is perfect. 



LXXX. PLOUGHING MATCH AT SAFFRON WALDEN. 



I attended, among several others, a ploughing match at Saffron 

 Walden, where there were at least ten competitors, with lots of 

 an eighth of an acre ; and, as well as I can remember, the 

 furrow-slices were to be seven inches in width and five inches 

 in depth. It was not a match against time, although the work 

 was required to be completed within a certain time. I do not 

 misstate when I say that I do not believe there was the variation 

 of an inch, in the whole field, in the width or depth of the 

 furrow, or a single crooked line, or even one solitary balk. 

 The fields or lands were struck out before beginning. Two 

 horses composed a team, arid the ploughman was his own driver. 

 Some boys under eighteen were allowed to enter as competitors 

 for boys premiums. I went over the field in an ecstasy of 

 admiration at its uniformity, neatness, exactness, and beauty. 



There were some peculiar regulations adopted on this occasion, 

 to which I may properly refer. Ploughmen who had obtained a 

 first-prize premium on any former occasion, for ploughing, were 

 disqualified, by the rules of the society, from entering into the 

 general competition. But, with a view &quot; of giving such merito 

 rious ploughmen another opportunity of showing that their skill 

 and energies remain unimpaired,&quot; a special competition was 

 offered to them, and seven prizes were proposed the first 



