Ch. I.] SMALL'S PLOUGH. f 



Its chief merit consists in the fore-part being formed in such a slender 

 wedge-like manner, as to cut the plit from the land with the least possil)le 

 resistance, while the thin feather-sock under-cuts the furrow-slice with 

 equal ease. The gradual curvature of the mould-board from the point of 

 the sock to the lieel of the wrest also lessens the friction in elevating and 

 turning the furrow-slices, and thus renders the operation of ploughing so 

 much less difficult than it formerly was, that it was proved by an experiment 

 made before the Dalkeith Farming Society, that Mr. Small's plough, in 

 tearing up an old ley, was drawn by a force of from 9 to 10 cwt., while the 

 old Scotch plough required one equal to 16 cwt. to perform the same work * ; 

 it has also been successful in similar competitions in many parts of both 

 England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland, which it is here unnecessary 

 to detail. It, however, fell short of the perfection aimed at, and has since 

 undergone many modifications, almost every ploughwright having his own 

 peculiar cast of some alteration. That by Wilkie is certainly a material 

 improvement, as it turns up the furrow with a bold shoulder, like that for 

 which the Scotch plough was so much valued : its shape, like that of a well- 

 tapered wedge, turning over the soil with very moderate powers ; and its 

 broad-winged share leaving nothing unstirred. 



This plougli, — wliich, although partly altered, still goes by Small's 

 name, — of which fig. 1 is a profile, as described by Mr. Wilkie, 

 although entirely of iron, weighs less than a hundred ami a half. A B, the 

 beam, is 6i feet long, and 2A- inches deep, by 1 inch thick : at the coulter 

 side it is 3| inches deep and 1^ inch thick. The sheath is fixed to the 

 beam by two screw-bolts ; one going up through the beam at C, the other 



* Gen. Rep. of Scotland: Append, vol. i,, p. 334. 



