PLOUGH 



PLOVER 



245 



tory promise of success was that for which Messrs 

 Fisken of Stamfordhara, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 took out a patent in 1855. Mr Fowler of Leeds, 

 and Messrs Howard of Bedford, and others 

 followed with apparatuses of various patterns. 

 The different inventions brought into notice from 

 time to time have included plans for engines 

 travelling over the surface of the ground, drawing 

 plouglis or other cultivating implements alone 

 with them ; engines working on tramways and 

 drawing implements after them ; engines mov- 

 ing along opposite headlands, and working imple- 

 ments between them by means of wire- ropes, and 

 stationary engines driving implements also by 

 means of wire- ropes. Only two of these systems 

 got beyond the experimental stage. These are 



what are called the direct and round-about the 

 former where the pull of the implement is directly 

 to and from the engine, or between two engines, 

 one at each end of the furrow ; and the latter 

 where the implement is drawn at right angles. 

 The best known of the apparatuses now in use are 

 those made by Fowler, Howard, and Barford and 

 Perkins, of Peterborough. 



The ploughs used in the various systems are very 

 similar in construction, some taking four and others 

 six furrows at each time. Fowler's apparatus is 

 shown at work in figs. 8 and 9. 



It has to be noted, however, that, with all the 

 ingenuity and capital expended on the perfecting of 

 the appliances, steam-power has not been employed 

 in the cultivation of the soil anything like so 



Fig. 8. Fowler's Anchor, Engine, and Plough at work. 



advantageously or extensively as was at one time 

 expected by the advocates of the practice. The 

 great agricultural depression following the disas- 

 trous year of 1879 gave the system its first serious 

 check. The injury nn wittingly done to large 

 extente of land by excessively deep-ploughing 

 by burying the good soil and bringing bad material 

 to the surface also tended to discredit steam- 

 cultivation. It has as a rule been found in practice 

 that moderate ploughing and deep stirring are pre- 

 ferable to deep ploughing, and steam-power is now 

 more largely employed in stirring and harrowing 

 the soil than in turning it over in furrows. Upon 



Fig. 9. Fowler's Plough. 



extensive farms, where the fields are large and con- 

 veniently shaped, steam-tillage may be pursued with 

 excellent results, if the farmer is careful to adapt 

 the operations to the particular character of the soil. 

 St<-uin-tillage, if wisely directed, is more thorough 

 than tillage by any other power, and the great 

 s]iM-il attainable is alxo an important consideration, 

 especially in precarious seasons, when the soil is not 

 long in a favourable condition for being worked. 



See Morton's <*iiflopmdia of A flriculture ( 1856 ) ; 

 Sr. phcnn" Boole of the farm (new ed. by present writer, 

 and the Rook of Farm Implement*, by Slight and 

 Scott Bam ( 1858 ) ; Professor J. Scott's Farm Eruiineer- 

 irvt ( 1884 ) ; and Scott Bum's Text-book of Farm Engineer- 

 ing (1886). 



Plonghgate. in the law of Scotland, is an 

 expn>sion uenoting a quantity of land of the 

 xtent of 100 acres Scots. See CASVOATB. 



Plough-Monday, or PLOW-MONDAY, the 

 Monday after Twelfth Day, and termination of the 

 Christmas holidays, when, according to the old 

 usage, the plough should be set to work again. 

 On Plough-Monday ploughmen were wont to drag 

 a plough from door to door, begging money for 

 the usual antics and ruder festivities. 



Plover, a name given to numerous species of 

 birds belonging to several genera of the family 

 Charadriadii'. They have a straight compressed 

 bill, but the upper jaw is slightly inflated and 

 slightly bent at the point ; the nasal groove ex- 

 tends about two-thirds of the length of the bill, the 

 nostrils are longitudi- 

 nally cleft near the 

 base ; the legs, which 

 are not very long, are 

 naked a little above 

 the tarsal joint ; with 

 one exception there is 

 no hind-toe; the wings 

 are rather long and 

 pointed, the first quill- 

 feather is the longest. 

 The species are numer- 

 ous, and are found in 

 every quarter of the 



f ~~ globe ; many of them 



are birds of passage. 

 They chiefly frequent 



low, moist grounds, where they congregate in 

 large flocks, and feed on worms, molluscs, in- 

 sects, &c. ; but some of them visit mountain- 

 ous regions in the breeding season. They fly 

 with great strength and rapidity, and run with 

 much swiftness. The flesh and eggs of many 

 of them are esteemed delicacies. A common 

 British species is the Golden Plover (Charail- 

 rius plumctlis), a handsome bird, of a blackish 

 colour, speckled with yellow at the tips and edges 

 of the feathers ; the throat, breast, and belly black 

 in summer, whitish in winter. The golden plover 

 is a bird of passage, visiting in summer the 

 northern parts of Europe, of the west of Asia, 

 and of North America, and migrating to the 

 south in winter. It is known in most parts of 

 Europe, and is common in many districts of 

 Britain, breeding in the northern counties. Great 



