Ch. IV.] PLOUGHING. 43 



wrong, he, last year, got two ploughmen out of the Lothians, to show* his 

 southern friends liow the work should be performed. They were both ex- 

 pert men, and were put to work in the spring witli a couple of Scotch 

 ploughs and a pair each of certainly as fine and as higlily-fed cart-horses 

 as any in the kingdom. The land being then in good condition, and 

 having only to efTect the tillage of ground which had been already broken 

 up in the winter, all went on to admiration until the soil became baked by 

 the summer's sun, and then the ploughs could make no impression upon 

 it. At length, however, autumn brought its rains, and after the weather 

 liad again become fair, and tlie ground in apparent good order, they were 

 set on to break a clover ley ; but tliere they stuck fast. The soil, which is 

 very deep, and requires deep ploughing, is in fact of such a tough nature, 

 that, when at all wet, it resists the action of the plough and adheres to it 

 like glue; while the cattle stick in it in like manner, and independently of 

 thus poaching the land, they cannot obtain a firm footing until they get at 

 something like hard ground in the furrow. In answer to this it has indeed 

 been said, " that if the ground is in such a situation as not to bear a horse 

 on the unploughed part, it is unfit for labouring, and ought not to be 

 touched ;" but such land is seldom in any other state during the winter or 

 the early part of the spring; and upon the farm where we are now writing, 

 we have under our eye a large tract of ground which always requires four, 

 and frequently five strong Lincolnshire liorses to break it up, for shallow 

 ploughing will not suit it, and the strain of draught upon the team is neces- 

 sarily in proportion to the depth at which it is worked*. The Lothian men 

 were at last obliged to use four in line and a stronger plough ; but, not 

 being accustomed to that manner of ploughing, they made but indifferent 

 work, and, being laughed at by their fellow-labourers, they returned home in 

 disgust. 



Few i'armers are so fond of their teams as to throw away money in the 

 keep of an unnecessary number of horses for the performance of their work, 

 and it cannot be presumed that many of them are ignorant of the manner in 

 which that work can be best and most economically executed : we may, 

 therefore, safely leave to their own judgment the decision of the question of 

 expediency regarding the modes which they deem the most proper. It should 

 however be observed, that many of them use three, and sometimes even four, 

 horses upon land of which a great part is so liglit as hardly to require more 

 than one ; but that is occasioned by circumstances which render it unavoid- 

 able. There are several clayland farms of so heavy a nature as to require 

 very powerful teams, but which are interspersed with portions of sand and 

 gravelly soil, sometimes even in the same field ; added to this, there is still 

 in many parts of England much common-field land, the divisions of which 

 are in general extremely narrow, and in some places so steep that they are 

 necessarily ploughed up and down hillf : the farmer therefore is in some 

 measure obliged to have at all times in the field strength enough for each 

 kind of work, and even if not thus compelled in all cases, does not always 

 find it convenient to make any difference in his usual mode of tillage. As 

 to the saving of a driver, more has been said about it by economists than 

 the matter is worth : any boy is sufficiently capable ; his wages are a mere 

 trifle ; it is the only way of teaching him his business as a carter and 



* The strain of draught upon a plough is generally calculated according to thesquare 

 of whatever portion is underground : thus when only three inches are buried, the pressure 

 will be only 9; but if the furrow be carried to the depth of 6 inches, it will be 36. — Wil- 

 liamson's Agric. Mech., p. 161. 



f See the Wiltshire Heport, p. 30. 



