BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 



[Ch. I. 



instrument for executinci; so coarse an operation as tliat of turning over 

 the grountl, and wliicli was committed to the hands of ignorant peasants, 

 required but little nicety of form. The work was, therefore, in most cases 

 imperfectly done, and the expense of working such defective implements 

 was an evil of serious magnitude, for they were almost invariably drawn 

 by a power at least equal to that of four horses ; whereas now, on the 

 improved plans, they can in most cases be managed with a pair. In some 

 ])laces, however, the ancient form is still continued, though with such 

 various modifications of its different parts in order to suit the nature of 

 the soils and the notions which are entertained of its efficiency, that a 

 ])articular account of them would be tedious ; we therefore confine our de- 

 scription to that one so well known and still so generally used in the 

 county of Kent, here delineated, under tlie name of the 



TUllNWllEST PLOUGH. 



It consists of a beam of oak, 10 feet long, by 5 inches deep and 4 

 bro'.ul, behind which is a foot 5 inches by 3^, and 3i feet long, on the 

 top of which the stilts, or handles, are placed ; the foot is tenoned to the 

 end of the beam, and mortised at the bottom to the end of the chep. Througli 

 the beam, at 2 feet .'J inches distance from the foot, is a sheath of oak 7 

 inches wide by 1^ thick, which is mortised into the chep, or sole, 

 in an oblique direction, so that the point of the share is 22 inches distant 

 from the beam. The chep, to which the share is fixed, is 5 feet long, 4 

 inches wide, and 5 deep. The share is of hammered iron, weighs about 32 

 pounds, is 20 inches long, and from 4-J^ to 7 inches wide at the point. 



The" up])er end of the beam rests on a carriage with two wheels, 3 feet 

 2 inches high. On the axle-tree is a gallows, on which is a sliding bolster 

 to let up and down. Through the centre of the axle is a clasp iron, to 

 which is fixed a strong chain, called a tow, that comes over the beam so 

 fixed, as, by means of notches (or a pin called a chick), to let the whole 

 ])lough out a greater length from the axle, thereby letting it down to a 

 greater depth*. 



* An extraordinary! ustance of its stronirth and power upon stubborn leys is mentioned 

 by Mr. Malcohu in his- Account of the At:;riculture of Surrey,' in which he says " that 

 in bruakini^ up the side of a very sharp hill full of large holes, inequalities, and irregu- 

 larities, having strong roots of furze, fern, sallow, and stones of six or eight inches thick, 

 it took eight horsesjr twelve oxen to perforin it. The soil was a good loam in some 

 places, in others a clay, but the whole on a substratum of blue clay. It required two 

 able men to hold the pluugli ; one, and sometimes two, to bear upon the beam, in order to 

 keep the plough in the ground ; and two drivers. Yet with this force, and notwithstand- 

 ing the continual sudden jerks which the plough received by the inequalities of the soil, 

 every part of the tackle stood well, and nothing broke. It was very apparent that in 

 this rough work the oxen were far preferable to the horses: the former, by the slowness 

 and regularity of their motion, avoided the small holes, and did not tumble about the 

 larger ones ; the horses, on the contrary, from their impetuosit}', were always falling, 

 being scarcely recovered from one hole before tliey found themselves in another, which 

 made them fret and jerk — injuring themselves, destroying their harness, and causing the 

 plough to go in all m;(nner of directions. It was not the fault of the plough ; for every 



