FARM IMPLEMENTS. 89 



point welded on as readily as on the ordinary plow, hy any 

 blacksmith, the steel being perfectly malleable, and working 

 kindly: Fifth, that any section can be duplicated or replaced, 

 the share, land-side, and mould-board, being cast in moulds. 



Though absolutely essential to the prairie soils of the "West, a 

 steel plow is equally servicable on many other soils, and many 

 think it superior on account of its greater lightness of weight 

 and of draught. 



The Subsoil Plow. It is often desirable to break up and 

 loosen the subsoil, to a greater depth than can be done with the 

 common plow, without bringing it up to the surface where its 

 effect would be injurious to vegetation. This loosening up 

 admits the air and the surface water to work down through the 

 lower strata, and so gradually to improve the whole soil. To 

 effect this often a subsoil plow is used to follow in the furrow 

 of the common plow. {Fig. 36.) 



Subsoil plows are of various forms, the general principle of 



I the wedge being adopted in them all. Sometimes the same 



object is effected by a subsoil attachment to the ordinary plow. 



i In drained soils, and in soils where a hard pan has been formed 



' just below the action of the common plow, subsoiling is highly 



beneficial. 



A large variety of plows are exhibited and advertised by 

 inventors and manufacturers. We can only name those we deem 

 the best. Dreere's steel plow, manufactured at Moline, Illinois, 

 {Jig. 37,) has many good qualities, and the prairie fixrmer will 

 not go amiss in purchasing it ; a curved iron beam plow, is a 

 late improvement by the same firm. Dr. C. W. Grant, the 

 veteran grape culturist of Ionia, New York, has perfected a 

 series of trenching plows, which, for preparing ground for root 

 crops, and particularly for orcliards and market gardening, are 

 exceedingly valuable. 



