Book IV. 



HORSE HOES. 



385 



each side to a less or greater distance according to the width of the interval between the 

 plants, and approach each other in the bottom of the furrow where the share supplies 

 their place. This machine is well adapted for light soils, and can be set to work very 

 near the rows of plants ; it is particularly useful in cutting up annual weeds preparatory 

 to hand-hoeing, which it greatly facilitates. When it is to be employed as a single or 

 double mould-board plough, the cutters are withdrawn. 



2546. A double mould-board plough is formed of this implement, by applying its two 

 mould-boards (g,g) ; and a paring plough by applying the expanding wings (b, d), and 

 curved coulters (;) ; a scuffler is 307 

 formed by applying twoscufflers 

 (f) in places of these coulters ; 

 a drill harrow by adding a tri- 

 angular frame with tines (Jig. 

 307.), and which may be ren- 

 dered in effect a brake harrow 

 by increasing their size, or a 

 horse-hoc by substituting hoes 

 (i, k, k). Lastly, it may be rendered a paring plough by substituting a suitable body and 

 share (h). (Supp. Encyc. Brit. vol. i. p. 200.) 



2547. Amos' s expauding horse-hoe and harrow {Jig. SOS.) is said to be much used in 

 Lincolnshire. The hoe is constructed with expanding shares (a, a,), which can be set to 



different distances as may be required, within the limits of twelve and thirty inches. 

 The harrow which is attached to it, is found advantageous in clearing lands from suc- 

 cessive crops of weeds, as well as in bringing 

 them to a proper state for the purpose of cropping ; 

 serving in this respect as a cultivator. 



2548. The hoe and castor ivheel {Jig. 309.) is 

 said to enable the holder to guide the shares more 

 correctly between narrow rows of corn drilled on 

 a flat surface. It is not often required, and must be 

 unnecessary if the rows have been correctly sown. *:.__: 



2549. The thistle hoe or hoe scythe Ifig. 310.) is an invention by Amos. ' It is used," 

 he says, for the purpose of cutting over thistles, and other injurious weeds in pasture 

 lands. In the execution of the work it not only greatly reduces the expense, but 

 executes it in a much closer manner than by the common scythe. One man and a 

 horse are said to be capable of cutting over twenty acres in a day. The leading share 

 (a) is made of cast steel, in the form of an isosceles triangle, whose equal sides are fourteen 

 mches long, and its base twelve inches ; it is about one eighth of an inch thick in the 

 middle, tapering to a very fine edge on the outsides ; and the scythes (6, b, b) are fixctl 

 to four pieces of ash wood, three inches square, and two feet four inciics long. These 

 scythes are three feet long from point to point, four inches broad at the widest part, 

 and made of cast steel. The agriculture, where such a machine as this is wanted, must 

 surely be of a very rude and imperfect kind ; for even supposing the macliine to cut over 

 the thistles, that operation cannot be so effectual as cuttin<r them under the collar by 

 hand with the spade or spud. 



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