GENERAL RULES FOR PLOUGHING. 457 



and skill, and no lack of an honorable ambition of improvement, 

 and that in the various departments of the arts, and in spheres of 

 improvement and progress higher than those of the mechanical 

 arts, all that is wanted among us, to the development of power 

 and skill, is &quot;a fair field and no favor.&quot; 



The regulations of the English plough ing-matches differ in 

 some respects from those in the United States. The judges in 

 the English ploughing-matches never come on to the field until 

 the work is done and every team withdrawn. With us, they 

 are present from the commencement to the close of the work. 

 Our practice is, in my opinion, to be preferred. In the former 

 case, no party is known, and impartiality, therefore, may be said 

 to be perfectly secured. So far it is well. The work is accu 

 rately surveyed and measured ; the depth of the ploughing, the 

 width of the furrow-slice, the mode of laying it over, the straight- 

 ness of the lines, the manner in which the first furrow-slices are 

 brought together if it is ploughed back to back, or the finishing 

 of the last and middle furrow if the piece is ploughed from the 

 outside to the centre, the freedom from balks and breaks, are all 

 carefully considered in the verdict rendered. In the United 

 States, every effort is made to secure impartiality, consistently 

 with other arrangements, inasmuch as that no names, but only 

 numbers, are given to the judges, and the different plats of ground 

 to be ploughed are drawn for by lot. Then the judges on the 

 field observe the whole progress of the operation ; measure the 

 different portions, as the work goes on ; and watch the temper 

 and conduct of the ploughman and the training of his team, the 

 manner in which he treats his team, and the condition in which 

 they come off from the work. These circumstances all deserve 

 consideration, and should come in as elements on which a judg 

 ment is to be made up. In both cases, it is understood, as it 

 should be, that no party having any personal or pecuniary 

 interest in the result shall have a place on the bench. The 

 English are exact and positive in prescribing the depth of the 

 ploughing, and the width of the furrow-slice even to a half-inch, 

 arid insist upon a uniform width throughout the whole. I have 

 urged this same thing often upon committees, in my own coun 

 try, on which I have had the honor of being placed, and have 

 been met with the objection, that this was requiring too much, 

 and would operate as a discouragement. In my opinion, you 

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