12 



BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 



[Ch. I. 



vvliicli we made at the plougliing matches to vvliich we liave just alluded, in 

 one of which a heavy Kentish turnwrest performed its work quite as well 

 as the lightest swing-ploughs in the field, though the soil was gravelly, 

 and the furrow hardly more than four inches in depth. On a heavy land 

 farm, on which we are residing, we however see very different results; for 

 there Scotch iron ploughs have been buried in the furrows, when it was 

 found necessary to ])lough the ground to a certain depth, and they have 

 been thrown aside for every kind of heavy work. For clay-land we have, 

 indeed, found another of Ransome's far belter adapted to the soil than that 

 which we have already described, as it works freer, and carries a deeper fur- 

 row with more ease. 



It however requires a powerful team ; and, if it has a fault, it requires to be 

 liigher in the beam for soils of that description ; for, when the ground is 

 ploughed deep, it breaks up in large clods, which gather under it and choke 

 the muzzle : though we must admit, that if the beam be mounted too high, 

 it occasions an increase of draught*, and the plough will not so easily cut a 

 flat furrow, nor go close at heel. This, indeed, we have seen corrected in 

 one from the manufactory of Jefferis and Co., of Guildford Street, South- 

 wark, upon nearly the same plan in every other respect, except that the 

 muzzle is fixed laterally to the end of the beam, with a pivot to elevate or 

 depress it — instead of being placed perpendicularly, as on Ransome's — with 

 a screw to alter its position to the land or furrow-side, in order to regulate 

 the line of draught : the effect is, however, quite similar. 



There are various modes of regulating the pitch of the plough. Thus 

 it may be made to go deeper by lowering the back-bands, or increasing the 

 distance of the horses, by setting the muzzle higher up in the index of the 

 beam, and by slanting or giving the coulter a greater rake forwards ; and the 

 reverse will make it go shallower. It can also be constructed with a regu- 

 lating lever, which may be attached to any of the foot and wheel-ploughs now 

 in use, and can be used occasionally, or otherwise, as circumstances may re- 

 quire. The side motion may be thus altered so as to make the plough take a 

 broader slice, or, as it is commonly called, " to give her more or less land :" — 

 by putting the hook of the traces into the notches of the muzzle more 

 towards the unploughed ground, you take land from the plough; but by 

 shifting it to the furrow side, yo7i give it land : it ought, therefore, to be 

 made about eight inches in length, and may be fixed either to the sides of 

 the beam, or to the top and bottom, as liere described. 



Q\__ 



* See observations on Draught, in Chapter IV. 



