Book IV. 



SWING PLOUGHS. 



389 



on a treadle (a). This frame can be adjusted to a small or a large grindstone, 



or altered as the stone wears out, by 

 the construction of the support for the 

 gudgeon (6) ; a loose shield of sheet- 

 iron (c) is used to protect the operator 

 from the water thrown off by the 

 wheel when in motion. (Gard. Mag. 

 vol. v.) 



2583. The essential hand-machines 

 are the ladder, wheel and hand-barrows, 

 winnowing machine, chaff-cutter, and 

 turnip barrow-drill. 



Chap. II. 

 Of Agricultural Implements and Machines drawn by Beasts of Labour. 



2584. The fundamental implements of agriculture are the plough, the harrow, and the 

 cart : these are common to every country in the slightest degree civilised ; sufficiently 

 rude in construction in most countries, and only very lately brought to a high degree of 

 perfection in Britain. Dr. Anderson (Recreations in Agriculture, Sec), writing in 1802, 

 observes, " that there are no sorts of implements that admit of greater improvement than 

 those of husbandry, on the principle of diminishing weight without in any degree abating 

 their strength." Since that very recent period, great improvements have taken place in 

 almost every agricultural implement, from the plough to the threshing-machine; and 

 though these have not yet found their way into general use, especially in England, they 

 may be procured at the public manufactories of the capitals of the three kingdoms with 

 no trouble. It is incredible what benefits would result to agriculture if proper ploughs 

 and threshing-machines were generally adopted ; and if the scuffler or cultivator, of which 

 Wilkie's seems to be the most improved form, were applied in suitable soils, and under 

 proper circumstances ; not to mention one and two horse carts, improved harrows, and 

 the best winnowing machines. But the ignorance and antipathy to innovation of the 

 majority of farmers in almost every country, the backwardness of labourers to learn new 

 practices, and the expense of the implements, are drawbacks which necessarily require 

 time to overcome. It may also be observed, that, in the progress of improvement, many 

 innovations which have been made have turned out of no account, or even worse than 

 useless ; and this being observed by the sagacious countryman confirms him in his rooted 

 aversion from novelty and change. — In our selection, we shall pass over a great variety 

 of forms, the knowledge of which we consider of no use, unless it were to guard against 

 them, and shall chiefly confine ourselves to such as are in use at the present time by the 

 best farmers of the best cultivated districts. These we shall arrange as tillage imple- 

 ments, sowing and planting implements, reaping machines, threshing machines, and 

 machines of deportation. 



Sect. I. Tillage Implements and Machines. 



2585. The tillage implements of agriculture comprise ploughs with and without wheels, 

 and pronged implements of various descriptions, as grubbers, cultivators, harrows, 

 rollers, &c. We shall take them in the order of swing ploughs, wheel ploughs, pronged 

 implements, harrows, rollers, &c. 



Subsect. 1. Suing Ploughs, or such as are constructed without Wheels. 



2586. The plough, being the fundamental implement of agriculture, is common to all 

 an-es and countries, and its primitive form is almost every where the same. The forms 

 used by the Greeks and Romans (see Part I. Book I. Chap. 1 and 2.) seem to have 

 spread over Europe, and undergone no change till probably about the 16th century, 

 when they began to be improved by the Dutch and Flemish. In the 17th century the 

 plough underwent further improvement in England ; and it was greatly improved in that 

 following, in Scotland. There are now a great variety of excellent forms, the best of 

 which, for general purposes, is universally allowed to be what is called in England 

 the Scotch plough, and in Scotland the improved Scotch plough. In speaking of the 



Cc 3 



