Ch. IV.] ' PLOUGHMEN. 39 



and ditch ; in'short, most farm-labourers acquire superior information upon 

 some one branch of the art ; but anfortunatelv, when these men die, their 

 knowledge dies with them ; others, young and inexperienced, succeed them, 

 and it follows that they unnecessarily toil their own bones, and waste their 

 employer's property, before they acquire sulhcient experience to execute the 

 work they take in hand in the most expeditious and correct manner. The 

 farmer's time and attention are occupied in superintending and directing 

 the general operations of liis farm, the rotation of crops, application of ma- 

 nures, selection of stock, and other important concerns. He knows when 

 his labourers are doing their work well, and he finds fault when he sees 

 they are in error* :" to experienced and skilful husbandmen, therefore, little 

 need be said regarding any part of the operation ; but there are many per- 

 sons in the occupation of land, who, not having been regularly bred to the 

 business of farming, are not sufficiently acquainted with the details of til- 

 lage to be able to direct what is proper to be done, or to correct the errors 

 committed by their servants, over whom tliey necessarily lose every proper 

 degree of ascendency, and to such persons, a few observations may not be 

 considered misplaced. 



PLOUGHMEN 



are not unfrequently engaged more from the appearance of thdr 

 strength, than from any real knowledge of their competency to do jus- 

 tice to the work ; a necessity, indeed, which is often imposed upon far- 

 mers by a view to the employment of the inhabitants of their parish. Yet 

 no craft can be learned without due practice ; and it has been justly re» 

 marked, that it is liarder to become a good ploughman than to learn the 

 common practice of most handicraft trades. A man who can handle the 

 implement with dexterity and judgment, and who is, besides, careful of his 

 team, must, therefore, be considered a valuable servant ; but it cannot 

 have escaped the observation of most masters, that such men are more rare 

 than may be generally imagined. 



, The first care of a young beginner, who has been brought up as a driver 

 and assistant in the farm-stable, and is thus, to a certain degree, acquainted 

 not only with the management of the team, but also with the handling of 

 the tool, should be to make the ridges straight, in which he will be much 

 assisted if, instead of depending wholly on the accuracy of his sight, he — • 

 when ploughing with a pair of horses — puts a cross-bar between the clieeks 

 of the bridles, so as to keep them precisely at the same distance from each 

 other, and then setting up a pole at the end of the furrow, exactly m.easured 

 to the same line as that from which he starts, fixes his eye steadily upon it, 

 ai;id carries the plough in a direction precisely to that point. But although 

 this is a very important object, yet the finishing of the ridge neatly must 

 depend on the exactness with which he holds to the depth of the fiu'rows ; 

 for, if they be not all cut regularly, by the plough being held in one posi- 

 tion, they will be left with a rough surface, and a mane of grass or weeds 

 on the edge of each plot: whereas, if ploughed in snug plits of a moderate 

 width and regidar depth, scarcely any space will be left between them, and 

 the ridge will be thus completed with less labour, as well as in a more work- 

 manlike manner. An idea is very generally entertained that the position in 

 which the furrow sods are laid depends on the form of the mould-board ; 

 but although this is partially the case, it depends more on the breadth and 

 depth of the furrow. To prove this would lead us into a dissertation which 

 could interest but few of our readers, and we must therefore refer to 

 those writers on the subject whom we have already quoted ; merely remark- 



* Blaikie, on the Conversion of Arable Land into Pasture, &c., p. 33. 



