Cli. I.] WHEEL-PLOUGHS. 19^ 



strength, and is generally used with wheels ; on the employment of which, 

 on ploughs of any description, a few observations may not be considered 

 misplaced. 



WHEEL-PLOUGHS. 



All the theoretic writers on ploughing, and certainly also some practical 

 men of great experience, object to wheel-ploughs as expensive, cumbersome, 

 clogging with dirt, and occasioning unnecessary friction and consequent 

 increase of draught, as well as being a nursery for bad ploughmen, as they 

 can be managed with much less dexterity than a swing-plough, and can only 

 make equal work on land that is quite smooth. The advocates of wheel- 

 ploughs, however — which are very generally employed on heavy land 

 throughout the midland and southern counties of England — contend that, 

 on strong soils, they work steadier, and are less apt to be thrown out than 

 swing ploughs ; that by pitching the plough a little deeper, and setting it 

 so as to prevent its drawing too deep, the wheels are found to be so 

 sufficient a guide as scarcely to require any one to hold, except in cases of 

 difficulty or on turning at the end of a furrow ; and that the supposition 

 that a wheel increases the draught of a plough is practically erroneous, 

 inasmuch as, by regulating its depth, the draught is rendered more steady 

 and uniform. 



The theory regarding the increase of draught, by the addition of one or 

 more wheels, is doubtless correct ; but practically, it may be observed, that 

 it is usual to fix a heavy iron wheel to malt-mills, and other machinery, 

 which are to be worked by hand labour: the o-bject of which is to regulate, 

 but by no means to diminish, the quantity of labour required. Now, if 

 regularity of force is found most favourable to the muscular exertion of a 

 man, it may surely be presumed to be equally so to that of a horse ; and so 

 far as our own observation has extended, or been confirmed by that of other 

 persons with whom we have consulted, we have seen no difference between 

 the distress of horses performing a day's work upon light land, with swing- 

 ploughs, and those with wheels ; whereas, on a stubborn soil, it has evidently 

 occasioned more labour to the ploughman, and apparently also to the 

 cattle, when done with a swing-plough. With respect to the ease with 

 which the work is performed, when the plough is set upon wheels, being " a 

 nursery for bad ploughmen,'' it may be true that good ploughmen will never 

 be numerous, where their ignorance or unskilfulness can be so easily re- 

 medied: but it is no part of the duty of farmers to educate their ploughmen : 

 they must take them as they find them, generally from the same village, and 

 frequently without choice respecting the difference of their capability ; and 

 if, independently of any other reason arising out of the nature of the land, 

 they can get the work equally, or nearly as well performed, by an indifferent 

 ploughman with a wheel-plough, as by a good one with a swing-plough, 

 we think few men will hesitate about using the former. 



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