440 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



field j but it has no great advantages, in this matter, over a double 

 mould-board plough. 



5. CORRECT PLOUGHING. The proper and best mode of 

 ploughing is so exactly and well described by a recent and 

 eminent Scotch agricultural writer, that I think I cannot do 

 better than to give it in full to my readers. 



&quot; Whatever mode of ploughing the land is subjected to, you 

 should take special care that it be ploughed for a winter furrow 

 in the best manner. The furrow-slice should be of the requisite 

 depth, whether of five inches on the oldest lea, or seven inches 

 on the most friable ground ; and it should also be of the requisite 

 breadth of nine inches in the former case, and of ten in the 

 latter ; but as ploughmen incline to hold a shallower furrow 

 than it should be, to make the labor easier to themselves, there 

 is less likelihood of their making a narrower furrow than it 

 should be, a shallow and a broad furrow conferring both ease 

 on themselves, and getting over the ground quickly. A proper 

 furrow-slice in land not in grass, or, as it is termed, in red land, 

 should never be less than nine inches in breadth and six inches 

 in depth on the strongest soil, and ten inches in breadth and 

 seven inches in depth on lighter soils. On grass land of strong 

 soil, or on land of any texture that has lain long in grass, nine 

 inches of breadth, and five inches of depth, is as large a furrow- 

 slice as may possibly be obtained ; but on lighter soil, with com 

 paratively young grass, a furrow-slice of ten inches by six, and 

 even seven, is easily, turned over. At all seasons, but especially 

 for a winter furrow, you should endeavor to establish for your 

 self a character for deep and correct ploughing.&quot; 



&quot; Correct ploughing possesses these characteristics : The fur 

 row-slices should be quite straight, for a ploughman that cannot 

 hold a straight furrow is unworthy of his charge. The furrow- 

 slices should be quite parallel in length ; and this property shows 

 that they have been turned over of a uniform thickness, for thick 

 and thin slices, lying together, present irregularly horizontal lines. 

 The furrow-slices should be of the same height, which shows 

 that they have been cut of the same breadth ; for slices of dif 

 ferent breadths, laid together at whatever angle, present unequal 

 vertical lines. The furrow-slices should present to the eye a 

 similar form of crest and equal surface ; because, where one 



