PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



582 



board, which is shaped as if it had been rolled obliquely over a 

 cylinder, a shape well adapted to sandy soils. In ploughing land which 

 is more or (less mellow and crumbling, the great object is to bring to 

 the surface that portion which has lain buried, and has not served to 

 nourish the preceding crop, and to bury that which has produced 

 vegetation, and in which the roots of various weeds have established 

 themselves. When manure is to be covered with a certain depth of 

 earth, a more complete subversion is required, in order that no part of 

 it may remain uncovered. When the land is in a compact state, from 

 the roots which pervade it, and it is only ploughed once to prepare it 

 for receiving the seed, much greater nicety is required to lay the slices 

 at a certain angle so as to leave regular lines or depressions in which 

 the seed may fall and be readily covered by the harrows which follow. 

 In this ease the angle of 45 is found to be the most convenient at 

 which the furrow-slices may be laid against one another. The field 

 will then have the appearance of being laid in small ridges as in the 

 annexed figure, all towards the same side if ploughed with a turn- wrest 



Fig. 10. 





plough, or towards a middle line if a plough with a fixed turn-furrow 

 has been used. To produce this regularity, thel'end of the turn-furrow 

 is made to press on the slice turned over. And if the mould-board be 

 convex, as it is in most Scotch ploughs, and in those made by Hornsby 

 of Grantham, this pressure is applied just at the right place to close 

 the junction of the several slices. 



When the seed is to be dibbled on the sward, which is reversed by 

 a single ploughing, it is necessary that the sod should be completely 

 turned over and laid flat. To do this, and at the same time to bury 

 all the grass, requires the furrows to be very equal and parallel ; so 

 that when a roller has gone over the land, it is perfectly flat, without 

 any interstices between the slices which are turned over. It requires 

 a good ploughman to do this perfectly. 



When clover-lea or old grass is ploughed up, it is difficult to bury 

 all the grass which grows on the edge of the slice ; and if it remains 

 exposed, it will grow and increase to the detriment of the corn. To 

 prevent this, a wing is sometimes added to the side of the coulter, a 

 few inches from the point, or an additional skim-coulter is made to 

 precede the ordinary coulter of the plough. It cuts a small horizontal 

 slice off the surface before the sod is turned over, and this falls into 

 the bottom of the furrow and is buried there. The coulter with such 

 a wing is called a skim-coulter, because it, as it were, skims the surface. 

 This instrument may require an additional horse to be put to the 

 plough in tenacious soils, but this cannot be avoided. There is no 

 doubt that no more horses should be put to a plough than can do the 

 work ; but whatever be the number required, the work must be done 

 well. There is no saving in doing the work imperfectly. The dis- 

 cussions about the number of horses which should draw a plough 

 might easily be settled, if the nature of the soil were sufficiently taken 

 into consideration. The shape of the plough may make some difference, 

 but the tenacity of the soil makes a much greater. 



Very little attention was formerly paid to the straightness of the 

 furrows. It- was natural to follow the shape of the boundary of the 

 field, which was seldom straight ; and this practice increased gradually 

 till no straight furrow was to be seen ; and there was a prejudice, if 

 not a superstition, in favour of crooked ridges. Those who defended 

 them with the least vehemence, asserted that if crooked furrows were 

 not better than the straight, the difference was unimportant ; but no 

 curves can be laid so perfectly parallel as two straight lines. Every 

 deviation from parallelism causes a defect in the contact of the slices, 

 and a loss of force by the obliquity of the draught. A superficial 

 observer would not perceive this, but minute examination proves it. 

 Hence equal and straight furrows are a sign of good ploughing. 



\\ "lien the land lies on a dry subsoil, and no more moisture remains in 

 it, after continued rains, than is useful to promote vegetation, it may be 

 ploughed quite flat. This may be done by a plough with a moveable 

 tum-fuirow, or by ploughing in very great widths. The best way is 

 to draw a furrow the whole length of the field in the middle, and 

 plough towards this from both sides. If the field is wide, it is most 

 convenient to plough it into several broad stitches, each a certain 

 number of perches in breadth. A perch (16 4 feet) is a very common 

 width for a " stitch," and convenient to guide the sower or the drilling- 

 machine. 



On wet undrained soils it is necessary to lay the land in a rounded 

 form, in order to let the superfluous water run off into furrows, from 

 which it is conducted by proper channels into the ditches. In this 

 case half a perch is a common width for each stitch, or land, as it is 

 sometimes called. It requires some practice to lay up a land in a 

 rounded form from a flat surface. After cross-ploughing and harrowing, 

 the first furrow is drawn wide and shallow, and the earth is thrown 

 upon the surface to the right : when the plough returns, it takes 

 another furrow about nine or ten inches from the first, laying the 

 earth or furrow-slice somewhat obliquely over the first. At the next 

 turn another slice is laid, meeting the last at an angle, the first slice 



being quite covered by the two last. This now forms the crown of the 

 ridge : and the succeeding slices are laid obliquely, leaning to the right 



Fig. 11. 



and left till the required width is obtained. Another land is now 

 begun at the distance of a quarter of a perch from the last furrow, and 



Fig. 12. 



laid exactly in the same manner. When the two' lands meet, the 

 intervening furrow, which had been purposely left shallower, is deepened ; 

 and there is a furrow between every two lands, the bottom of which is 

 considerably below the bottom of the other furrows. When this field 

 is ploughed again after harvest, the work is reversed ; the furrow 

 between the lands is filled with the first slice, and another is placed 

 over this, which now becomes the crown of the land to be formed : 

 this is called ploughing crown and furrow. When the lands are 

 ploughed towards the crown, it is called gathering. By gathering 

 several times in succession, the soil is much raised at the crown at the 

 expense of the sides. This was the old practice, when lands were laid 

 very wide and very high ; in common fields, the land or stitch was 

 often the whole width of the possession, from which came the name of 

 land. In Scotland they are called riggs. 



One of the most useful operations in ploughing land is to cross the 

 former furrows, by which means the whole soil is much more com- 

 pletely stirred; and if any part has been left solid without being 

 moved by the plough-share, which is called a balk, it is now necessarily 

 moved. The leaving of balks is a great fault, and is owing to the sole 

 of the plough being narrower than the furrow-slice, and the wing of the 

 point too short, or to the ploughman not holding his plough upright. 

 The share should cut the ground to the whole width of the furrow, 

 that no roots of thistles, docks, or other large weeds may escape and 

 grow up again. The Roman authors recommended the use of a sharp 

 rod or stake inserted horizontally into the ground, to discover if there 

 were any balks, which, with their ploughs, must have been often left, 

 if the ploughman was not very careful to make close and small furrows. 

 Many ploughmen hold the plough in an oblique position ; the bottom 

 of the furrow is consequently not level, and the soil is not stirred 

 equally. This is a great fault, especially in wet ground ; for the 

 furrows thus become channels in which the water remains, not being 

 able to run over the inequalities of the bottom. It is of no use to lay 

 the surface convex, if the solid earth below lies in hollows or gutters. 

 The water naturally sinks down into the newly-ploughed land, and if 

 it be undrained it sinks only till it meets the solid bottom which the 

 plough has gone over ; if it can run over this into the deeper furrows 

 between the stitches, it evaporates or runs off, and the land is left dry, 

 and so consolidated as to let the water run along the surface without 

 sinking to any depth ; but if the bottom is uneven, it remains in the 

 hollows, and stagnates there, to the great injury of the growing crops. 



There are various modes of ploughing land when it is intended to 

 pulverise and expose it to the sun in summer, or the frost in winter, 

 to purify and fertilise it. To expose as great a surface as possible, the 

 whole field is laid in high and narrow ridges, bringing to the surface 

 all the fertile portion of the soil, and often also a portion of the subsoil 

 so as to deepen the productive portion and give more room for the 

 roots to spread in. The simplest method of increasing the surface 

 exposed, when the land is first broken up from pasture, or after 

 having been some years in grass, and is in a foul state, is called 

 ribbing, or " raftering." The plough turns up a slice, which it lays 

 over flat on the adjoining surface. It does not cover this with the 

 next slice, as if it were beginning the crown of a stitch, but it takes 

 another slice at some distance, and then one parallel to the first, like- 

 wise laid flat on the solid part. When the whole field has been so 

 ploughed, the surface consists altogether of ridges and furrows ; but 

 only half the surface has been ploughed. No grass appears, if it has 

 been well done, the unploughed strips being covered by the slices 

 raised by the side of them, the two surfaces with grass on them cover 

 each other. It is left in this state till the grass is rotten, and when 

 the sod is broken to pieces by heavy drag harrows, the land can be 

 cross-ploughed and cleaned or fallowed in dry weather. 



There is another mode of ridging, when the land has had one. or two 

 ploughings, in order to expose it to the frost in winter, and to mellow 

 it. The operation is somewhat similar to ribbing, but after the first 

 slice is turned over, another is added, as deep as the plough can be 

 made to go, so as not to bring up the subsoil ; by this means the whole 

 surface is laid in high ridges and deep furrows ; and when this 

 ploughing is reversed, in spring, the soil which has been exposed to the 

 frost and wind is mixed with the rest, and tends greatly to mellow it. 

 Thia is an excellent preparation for turnips, if the land has been well 



