20 



BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 



[Ch. I 



Hcav3% stubborn land, wben liardened by the sun, and stony soils, are very 

 apt to throw the ploughs out of the ground, thus rendering it impossible, 

 notwithstanding all the care and skill of the workman, to form the furrows 

 of one uniform depth, and therefore seem to require instruments of a pecu- 

 liar construction. A plough may, indeed, be prevented from being thrown 

 out, by giving the point of the share a dip below the line of the furrow, or 

 by a greater length of the mould-board, and a greater weight and length 

 correspondent to that in the other parts of the plough. If the point of the 

 share, however, has a dip given to it, it has a tendency to draw the plough 

 too much down, and experience has shown that no method has been found 

 so effectual, notwithstanding the objections made to them, as the use of a 

 wlieel, or wheels ; for if attention be paid to the state of the land, so as to 

 ascertain whether they sink more or less into the surface, the depth at 

 which it ought to be worked can thus always be accurately regulated *. 

 Their utility is indeed so generally admitted in many counties, in the plough- 

 ing of a hard fallow, that those farmers who are unprovided with them to 

 their fallow-ploughs frequently make use of an iron foot, which, having 

 a flat bottom, slides over the ground, and produces nearly the same effect. 

 One we, however, think preferable to a pair, both for simplicity of construc- 

 tion and use. AVhen a ])air are used, that which goes in the furrow must 

 be larger in diameter than that which goes upon the land, and thus, when- 

 ever the implement has no receding furrow to work along, the wheels must 

 be brought to a level to prevent the })lough from being cast to one side, 

 which can only be rectified by causing the furrow wheel to be fixed upon a 

 bar sliding vertically through the right end of the axle; thus occasioning 

 frequent delay and application to the blacksmith. As the tendency of the 

 point of the share towards the unploughed ground is, in common ploughs, 

 resisted by the land- side of the neck, it has been recommended to place the 

 wheel in a diagonal position, by which it resists both the horizontal and the 

 vertical tendency to deviate from its proper place, as manifested in the 

 following design of a plough, wliich was found superior, in lightness of 

 draught, to both Norfolk and Norlhumberland swing-ploughs, in competition 

 with which it was tried at one of the Woburn Sheep Shearingst. In saying 



this, however, we must beg not to be understood as recommending wheel- 

 ploughs on free and light soils, since, on such land, there can be no 



* "In the operation of working wheel-ploughs, with improperly turned plates, or 

 mould-boards, it will frequently happen, from the resistance produced against the plou-Wi 

 by stones, the tenacity or compression of the earth, that they are obliged to be let down 

 below the corresponding line of levil, so materially necessary to the equal bearing 

 between the pitch of the plough, and to the inclination which is thus given to the point of 

 the share downwards, and which ought always to he, as nearly as possible, in a line 

 drawn parallel to that of the draught, and with the breastwork which forms the fidcrum 

 for the beam to rest upon. When a plough is so constructed, and set to work, that it 

 bears unequally in these points, the end of the share will be rooting or dragging, with its 

 pouit downwards, kicking up, and sideways at the heel, and rendering it utterly impossible 

 to plough the ground clean, or in anywise to lay the work uniform, or even in a tolerable 

 manner; notwithstanding, an excessive and unnecessary degree of labour is thereby pro. 

 duced to the jiloughman and horses." — Essex Ecp., vol. i. p. 140. 



i See the Jiedford Survey, p. 165, and the Ann. of Agri., vol. xl. n. 502. 



