48 OFPLOWING. Part I. 



CHAP. IX. 



Of PLOWING. 



MR. Duhamel, in the firfl part of his eighth chapter, enters 

 into a detail of the French method of plowing, which, not 

 being fo good as what is generally pradlifed in this kingdom, we 

 fhall pafs over, and give infiead of it what appears to us the fimplefl 

 and mofi: rational praftice here. 



We join with the author of the Neiv Syjiem of Agriculture, in 

 thinking that there is no occafion for more ploughs than two; 

 one for hai'd or heavy foils, and the other for light or mellow. 

 There are, fays he, in England, above an hundred different forts 

 of ploughs, and all bad. It is furprizing to fee the toil and charge 

 fome people put themfelves to, for want of a compleat knowledge 

 in the make and management of this ufeful inftrument. — I have 

 feen, continues he, eight oxen tack'd to a plough, which the weak- 

 eft beaft in the team would have eafily drawn in a much heavier 

 foil. — He then diftinguillies the only two ploughs he thinks worth 

 uling, by the names of the Jlrong and the light. 



T\iQjlrong plough is to be ufed on all hard clays, ftiff binding 

 foils, and ftony grounds, or any lands of that nature. — It is drawn 

 by two oxen, nor are any more at any time neceffary. — The fol- 

 lowing is his defcrlption of it : 



Let the length of your fhare be a foot and a half; the point 

 indifferently iliarp, but very ftrong : let the fhelving fide be work'd' 

 thick, and without a Jin, but fteel'd all along its edge, from the 

 point to the hinder part, where its perpendicular height muft not 

 exceed fix inches. — The breadth muft be juft fufficient to carry a 

 furrow feven or eight inches broad. In this plough, the place of 

 the breaft-board muft be fupplied by an iron plate, which, joining 

 to tl^e fhare, and being part of it, is, in a bellying manner, car- 

 ried back, and gradually brought to ivhelm, as if it wotild fall upon 

 the furrow. This plate, being made as thin as its ufe will permit, 

 is fiipported by a pin from the plough-head, which is, in all re- 

 fpefts, the fame with that of the plough I before recommended 

 for paring up the turf of lands to be burnt. — This breaft-iron, 

 v^ith all the neatnefs and facility imaginable, takes the earth, as 

 it rifes on the fhare, and, without labouring under the load of a 

 I long 



