( '38 ) 



In the operation of working wheel-ploughs with im- 

 properly turned plates or mould boards, it will frequently 

 happen from the refinance produced againft the plough by 

 ftones, the tenacity or compreOion of the earth, that they 

 are obliged to be let down below the correfponding line of 

 level, fo materially neceflary to the equal bearing between the 

 pitch of the plough, and to the inclination which is thus 

 given to the point of the (hear downwards, and which ought 

 always to be, or at leaft as nearly as poflible to a line, drawn 

 parrallel to that of the draft, and with the breaft work, which 

 forms the fulcrum from the beam to reft upon. When a plough 

 is fo conftrudted, and fet to work, that it bears unequally 

 -in thefe points, the end of the Ihear will be rooting or 

 dragging with its point downwards, kicking up, and fide- 

 ways at the heel, and rendering it utterly impoflible to plough 

 the ground clean, or in any wife to lay the work uniform, or 

 even in a tolerable manner; notwithftanding an excelTive 

 and unnecel^ary degree of labour is thereby produced to the 

 ploughman and horfes. Where the wheel ploughs are pro- 

 perly conftru£led, they are without queftion eafier to hold, 

 and will cut the ground more evenly, and work at a more 

 uniform depth than the foot-ploughs ; at the fame time, it 

 muft be confcHed, that in any given foil, they will require 

 a greater power to work them than the latter : the bed 

 conftruded, of which and thofe with the completed and beft 

 sraduated rack work at the end of the beam, are thofe 

 commonly ufed in the Ifland of Merfea, in that neighbour- 

 hood and quarter of the county. 



SECTION 



