Ch. I.] 



IMPERIAL SELF-CLEANER. 



13 



The plougliman may also give more breadth by pressing the stilts towards 

 the right ; though it is a bad plan, and requires too much exertion to be con- 

 tinued throughout a day's work. If the line of draught be not then true, 

 the error will be discovered by more earth being thrown up on one than the 

 other side; or, as labourers say of the plough, by its "not riding fair," 

 which it will not do if it does not move forward in a straight direction : in 

 which case it will be proper to give the muzzle a cast in favour of which- 

 ever side may have too much or too little hold of the soil. 



It would lead us too far to delineate the numberless ploughs which 

 are used in different districts, and we have therefore no intention of men- 

 tioning those made by other eminent manufacturers, — although many of 

 them are well worthy of attention, — yet it would be injustice to withhold tlie 

 description of one of those invented by the late Mr. John Fiidayson,of Muir- 

 kirk, which has received strong marks of ap])robation from many intel- 

 ligent farmers in different counties of England and Scotland, and is called 

 the 



IMPEHIAL SELF-CLEANING, OR RID-PLOUGH. 



It is formed entirely of malleable and cast iron, the mould-boards and 

 plates being of the latter ; and it is stated in Mv. Finlayson's account of its 

 merits, that, "besides being guided with less exertion, and making better 

 work, more may be performed by it in a given time, and with the same 

 power, on any soil, and the double or triple on wet, rough, foul lands." Indeed 

 on rugged, uncultivated ground, it certainly has been shown to have a decided 

 advantage, when used in several instances in competition with Small's or in- 

 deed any other of the common swing-ploughs with which it has been tried*. 



" The coulter and beam, as in j?^. 1, form a semicircle of about 22 inches 

 diameter, with the concavity towards the muzzle ; i. e. taking the coulter, 

 from within 6 or 8 inches of the point, for so many degrees, and the beam, 

 from where it is inserted to about twenty inches forward, for the remainder. 



* In a trial made in presence of t'ne Dalkeith Farmins^ Societ\-, upon a field of clover 

 ley, along with a very well-constructed plough on Small's plan, the work of the rid-plough 

 was found far superior to the other. A second trial was tlien made upon very rough, 

 peaty meadow-ground; when the rid-plough went nine rounds, laying out the furrow in 

 the most perfect maimer, while the other plough only went two, and that not without 

 the assistance of a man to clear the rubbish. 



TheCarrick Farmers" Society have also certified "that in ploughing rough, coarse land, 

 or cross-cutting fallow, they consider it greatly superior to any other construction of 

 plough they have ever had an opportunity of seeing at work." It was also tried in Berk- 

 shire, in competition with various other ploughs, with similar success, " ploughing up 

 heath and furze with as much apparent ease as if it had been ploughing a stubble-field ; 

 while the common ploughs left scarcely a vestige of tillage." An acre of stubble-ground 

 has also been iiloughed with it, in good style, at SiUwood Park, Sunninghill, in three 

 hours and twenty-eight minutes, with a pair of small horses ; and another of heatli, at 

 Titness Park, with the same cattle, in three hours and forty minutes. 



