6 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. I. 



unwicltly construction, as well as by the weight of the ph)iigh ; tlie sliarcs 

 of which weighed formerly as much as 60 to 70 lbs., though now reduced 

 to somewhat less than 50. 



On this it has, however, been not improperly remarked, " that persons 

 accustomed to a light-land country too frequently pronounce hastily on the 

 power required, as well as the nature of the instrument most proper for 

 working with effect in stronger soils, and witli which they are in a great 

 measure unacquainted. The surface of a clay loam is often observed, after 

 it has been acted upon by the winter's frost, to be loose, tender, and friable ; 

 a decision immediately takes place on the obstinacy and folly of the farmer 

 for applying a power unnecessarily expensive to the tillage of his land : 

 whereas, would these gentlemen condescend to examine the subsoil of such a 

 field, or take hold of what they term an unwieldy apparatus, that may be at 

 work upon it, they would soon discover that it is not the loose surface of 

 one or two inches in depth that the plough has to contend with, but that the 

 machine must pass througli a subsoil of tough, strong, and perhaps stony 

 loam, and that little short of the power employed would be able to effect the 

 purpose*. Weight, as well as strength, is, indeed, in such cases so neces- 

 !<arv, that we have lately seen a lad sitting upon the end of the beam of a 

 light swing plough, to keep it down in the furrow, while ploughing a deep 

 ciav ; when made to get down, the implement occasionally twitched out 

 of the "ground on its meeting with any extraordinary impediment, and the 

 ploughman declared that, unless thus weighted, he could not otherwise keep 

 it steady. That improvements may be made upon these ancient ploughs is 

 proved by daily experience, but it also clearly demonstrates that those prin- 

 ciples should not be altogether departed from, the utility of which has been 

 established by the practice of ages. In all tough and stubborn clays which, 

 on their breaking up, are meant to be ploughed clean, and to a full depth, 

 machines of strength and steadiness of draught are indispensable ; though, 

 in the subsequent ploughings of such land, lighter implements, requiring less 

 force, are generally made use of. 



small's plough. 



The first improvement of much note was that of a light swing plough 

 invented upwards of a century ago in Yorkshire, whence it obtained the 

 name of the Rotherham plough, and is very generally employed through- 

 out that county, and many other parts of England. Its extreme length is 

 7 feet 4 inches, and the weight of the wood and ironwork 1^ cwt. It differs 

 also greatly from all the common ploughs of ancient construction, in 

 being more slightly as well as more neatly constructed, and having the 

 coulter and share formed and placed so as to raise, and then gradually turn 

 over the new cut furrow much cleaner, and with less resistance, than the 

 others. 



This plough was the only one v/orked with a pair of horses abreast, mitil 

 the year 1764, when Mr. James Small, a Scotch mechanic and farmer in 

 Berwickshire, improved upon it by inventing the iron mould-board, or mould- 

 iron, which turns the furrows cleaner than that of wood ; then the land-side 

 plates, sheath and head, were made of cast-iron, and eventually the whole 

 machine has been formed of metal. He thus — although no mathematician 

 — made such progress in perfecting the construction upon sound mechanical 

 ])rinciples, that his swing ploughs are now very universally employed with 

 a pair of horses and whip reins, without a driver, and on an average of 

 soils plough an acre a day with ease. 



* Vancouver's Hampshire, p. 91. 



