52 



FARMERS' REGISTER— HARVEST LABORS IN ENGLAND. 



quantity, and the requisite number of liorses must 

 depend upon the nature and condition of the soil; 

 the season; the way in which the work is perform- 

 ed; and the sort of cattle emj)loyed. Notwithstand- 

 ing the broad assertion 'that two-horse jjloughs are 

 fiilly adequate to the tillage of any soil, howe- 

 ver heavy,'* it is certain that there is land in the 

 Weald of Kent, and the adjaceilt similar districts, 

 so exceedingly stiff and wet, that lour powerful 

 horses, or six strong Sussex oxen, ai'c sometimes 

 brought to a stimd still in breaking it upij the 

 mode oi' ploughing, too, sometimes i-equires that 

 the horses should go at length, in which case 

 three ai-e hardly more efficient than a pair abreast: 

 and it is well known to practical men that, even 

 with apparendy proportionate additional strength, 

 an acre of stubborn clay cannot be broken up in 

 the same time as a ley of triable loam. Much 

 ingenuity has been exercised to facilitate the exe- 

 cution of field-labor; various forms of the plough 

 have been constructed to operate with less resist- 

 ance, and tlie work has been executed by the ap- 

 plication of less power. This is, no doubt, a great 

 improvement, when the purpose can be equally 

 well attained. It is pleasant to see a ploughman 

 conduct a pair of well-trtiined horses to the field, 

 and in a masterly manner jjerform the work which 

 formerly required the aid ol' an awkward plough- 

 boy and a number of unwieldy animals; and when 

 the implements are good, and the ploughman in- 

 telligent and dexterous, this, no doubt, may be 

 done. But it has been v»'ell observed, by a writer 

 of great experience, J that 'fashion overrules judg- 

 ment, and too ill-appointed animals are oilen ex- 

 pected to perform that vWiich is sufficient for the 

 most powerful; the surface is slightly scratched, 

 attention to preserve the depth of the soil is disre- 

 garded, and the progress of cultivation and fertility 

 retarded.' Adequate force should be employed 

 to stir the ground to such a depth as a healthy 

 vegetation requires; the breadth as well as the 

 depth of the flirrow, too, and the pace at which 

 it is turned, govern the quantity that can be plough- 

 ed in a given time. The ground gone over in 

 ploughing an aci'e is, with a broad furrow-slice, 

 about eleven miles, or with one of eight inches, 

 twelve miles and three furlongs, exclusive of turn- 

 ings: and it has been ascertamed, that a team, 

 walking at the different rates of one and a half 

 and two miles an hour, will plough the following 

 ((uantity of a medium soil, to the depth of five 

 inches, nine hours: — 



Inches. a. r. p. 



Breadth of furrow 8 at 1^ miles per hour 1 



9 " " 1 20 



8 2 " 1 1 10 



9 " " 12 

 The dilTerence in the quantity ploughed in these 



instances clearly demonstrates the VcUue of action 

 in the horses; but it must at the same time be ob- 

 sei'ved, that the distance travelled at the slow pace 



* Quarterly Journiil of Agriculture, No. XI. p. 714. 



fKent Report, 2d edit. p. 20. Surrey Report, (Ste- 

 venson's,) p. 195. In some of the red clay land, in 

 the Newbury district of Berksliire, five fiorses find 

 hard work in turning up three-quarters of an acre in a 

 day. Berks. Report, p. 119. 



t John Naismith, Esq., part iv. No. i. of the second 

 vol. of the Appendix to the General Report of Scot- 

 land. 



is only twelve, while at the quicker rate it is six- 

 teen miles; and that a ploughman must possess 

 more than ordinary strength and dexterity to go 

 through that degree of labor, and perform it well; 

 for altlioiigh he may rest himself occasionally by 

 means of tjie plough tail, yet that is always at the 

 expense both of the cattle, and of the regularity 

 of the work. JMr. Parkinson mentions an instance 

 of an Irish ploughman who, in a medium soil, 

 and with a nine-mch fuiTow, turned over at the 

 second ploughing', with a pair of horses of the 

 hea\y dray kind,l acre and 20 perches (Irish mea- 

 sure) in six hours and ten minutes, Avhich is at the 

 rate of nearly 2 acres 2 roods in eight hours; the 

 horses must therefore have walked during that 

 time at the rate of three miles an hour; but he ad- 

 mits that no horses, wth any keep, could have 

 ma,intained such daily labor for a continuance.* 

 On the whole, therefore, it may be concluded, 

 that an acre and a half is the utmost that can be 

 ploughed with a common furrow, on any soil; and 

 that on an average, from an acre, to an acre and 

 a quarter, in summer, and tliree-fourths of an acre 

 in winter, may be considered as the day's work of 

 a team; the strength being in pi'oportion to the 

 land. 



MR. CXTRWEIV S DIARY OF HIS HARVEST LA- 

 BORS, IN CUJIBERLAND. 



[It is not with the expectation that our readers can 

 derive instruction for practice from the following diary, 

 that it has been selected for their perusal. Harvest in 

 Virginia is so widely different in every respect from 

 harvest in the north of England, that scarcely any 

 thing usual or proper in the one, would be fit for imi- 

 tation in the other. The climate and unusual degree 

 of moisture — the time of year — the reaping (or "shear- 

 ing") implements — the kind of labor, and the manner 

 of its application — all are different in that cold and 

 dripping region, from ours: and with our views, it 

 seems a wonder, under such circumstances as are nar- 

 rated, that aU the wheat in the country was not lost, in- 

 stead of being generally well saved But this veiy 

 difference of our circumstances from those liere descri- 

 bed, will lend some interest to the statements — and there 

 is another thing that wiU serve to increase the interest 

 to most readers, and it is this particular to which we 

 especially invite attention. The pleasure wliich will 

 be found in the perusal of this diary is almost en- 

 tirely owing to the minuteness of the details. And if 

 even a slight interest is thus produced, concerning a 

 locality and circumstances altogether strange to us, 

 mucli greater would it be, if as minute a statement was 

 presented of a well conducted harvest in Virginia. 

 And such a diary, would not only give pleasure, but 

 instruction, in the best and most effective form. 



It is scarcely necessary to state that Mr. Curwen 

 was one of the most intelligent and distinguished far- 

 mers of England. This diary is extracted from his re- 

 port to the Workington Agricultural Society of which 

 he was the Pi-esident.] 



"PflrA: wheat— 22 acres.'] On the 2Sth of Au- 

 gust, this crop was begun to be cut. It was fess 

 injured than I expected from the situation of the 



* Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. ii. p. 132. 



