36 AGRICULTURE FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 



useful in plowing sod. The beam-wheel is a wheel fastened 

 at the end of the beam where the team is hitched. It serves 

 to steady the plow. It is not found on all plows. 



A right-hand plow turns the soil to the right, a left-hand 

 plow turns it to the left. One kind is as good as the other. 

 The plow is regulated usually by the clevis, which can be 

 moved from side to side and up or down. In the case of a 

 left-hand plow, if the clevis is moved toward the right the 

 plow will not turn so much soil, but if it is moved toward the 

 left the plow will turn a wider strip of land. If the clevis is 

 moved down the plow will run less deep, but if it is moved 

 up the plow will go deeper. The soil that is turned over is 

 called the furrow-slice. Several furrow-slices together make 

 the land. Where a strip of ground or a field is finished there 

 is a furrow or ditch called a dead-furrow. 



Kinds of Plows. — The kind of plow described above re- 

 quires the plowman to walk after it. It is called a walking- 

 plow. When the plow is mounted on wheels it is called a 

 sulky-plow. If two or more plows are attached together so 

 that two or more furrow-slices are turned over at the same 

 time we have a gang-plow. The gang-plow can be used suc- 

 cessfully only in large fields. On some very large fields in 

 prairie regions plowing is done with large gang-plows pulled 

 by an engine. Sometimes two plows, a right and a left, are 

 attached side by side to the same axle of a sulky, so that one 

 plow is used to plow across the field in one direction and then, 

 by turning around and going back in the furrow just made, 

 the other plow is used. This is called a reversible plow. It is 

 always mounted on wheels and is useful in plowing hillsides. 

 Another kind of reversible plow has the share and mold- 

 board so arranged that they can be turned under the shank, 



