supplement. SCIENCE AND ART OF AGRICULTURE. 



1:517 



draught-gauge for measuring the strain arising to the horses from different ploughs, and found that 

 those wheel ploughs he tried inflicted the least labour upon the cattle. Following his example, 1 tried 

 several ploughs in the same manner, and with the same result. It further appeared that there was a 

 much wider difference in thedraught of ploughs than had been suspected, and even that, of two ploughs 

 used by twr farmers in the same parish and on the same soil, one was heavier for three horses than the 

 other for two ; the old Berkshire plough costing the cattle a muscular strain of 23 stones, while Hart's 

 improved one-wheeled plough was drawn by them with an exertion of 14 stones only, One of Messrs. 

 Kansome's was hardly surpassed by Hart's in lightness, and it certainly made better work. The Scotch 

 were the heaviest of the swing ploughs. The next trial was by Mr. Freeman at Haveriordw est in South 

 Wales, who set an old Welsh plough of the country against Hart's. Here again the old plough was more 

 severe for three horses than Hart's was for two. The old plough stood at 20 stones ; Hart's at 13. The 

 next experiments were made by Lord Tweeddale, and in these the Tester plough equalled Hart's plough 

 in lightness. The next trial was before our judges at Liverpool, whose words I will quote from their 

 report : ' It appears that in almost every case the draught of the wheel ploughs was less than that of the 

 swing kind ; and it must not be concealed that the wheel ploughs in every case actually turned over 

 more soil than the swing, for the share and sole of the former maintained a flat, horizontal position, 

 whereas all the swing ploughs leant more or less to the land side, cutting to a less depth on the right than 

 on the left-hand side. Consequently the furrow-bottoms left by the wheel ploughs were more even than 

 those excavated by the swing ploughs.' On this occasion, a wheel-plough by Messrs. Barrett, of Reading, 

 was the lightest, marking 22 stones ; Hart's the next, 24 stones ; a Scotch and a Northampton swing 

 plough the heaviest, standing each at 40 stones, I cannot but remark how little our mechanists yet 

 know of the draught of their ploughs, when implements could be brought forward to compete for a prize 

 at a great public meeting, some of which gave as much work nearly for four horses as others for two. 

 The latest published record of trials is a very careful set of experiments by Mr. Hannam, of Dorchester, 

 in Oxfordshire. Here again, as in Wales, and in Berkshire, the lightest plough stood at 13 stones, the 

 old Oxfordshire plough at 22 stones, the Scotch swing-plough at 20 stones. The lightest plough in'this 

 instance was Messrs. Barrett's. There only remains the interesting report of our judges on the ploughs 

 which competed at our Bristol meeting. There, again, it will be seen that the lightest plough was a 

 wheeled one, Mr. Howard's of Bedford, which stood at 22 ; the heaviest, a Scotch swing-plough, which 

 marked 44 ; the next heaviest, another Scotch swing-plough, which marked 36 ; and, in the words of 

 our judges, it is worthy of note that the resistance of Mr. Howard's two-wheel was less by 4 stones than 

 that of his swing plough. From these repeated trials, which have arisen out of Lord Spencer's remark, 

 we may now come to the conclusion that wheel ploughs, as he suspected, are superior to swing ploughs, 

 in ease for the cattle, and are also superior in the work they perform ; that the Scotch swing plough in 

 particular is very severe for the cattle ; that, since in three country trials the draught of the ploughs 

 was found to differ as two to three — that is, as two horses to three — more attention is required on the 

 part of our ploughwrights to the easiness of their draught ; and, lastly, that, since in our two public 

 competitions at Liverpool, and again at Bristol, the draught of some competing ploughs doubled that of 

 the winning plough, it appears very clearly that our ploughmakers, as a body, are not thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with the qualities of their own implements, otherwise the race could not be so unequal." 

 (Joum. A. E., vol. Hi. p. 187.) 



8187. Comparative estimates of ploughs by Scotch agriculturists. Notwithstanding the experiments 

 made in England under the auspices of the Agricultural Society seem to prove the superiority of wheel 

 ploughs in many instances, yet the prejudice in favour of swing ploughs seems tr- remain unabated in 

 Scotland. Mr. Slight, in Stephens's Book of the Farm, observes, w riting in 1842, " no ploughman who 

 has been able to wield the swing plough, will ever suffer himself to be incommoded with the addition of 

 wheels to his plough (for he will always consider wheels an inconvenience), and this he does not from a 

 conviction that wheels increase the labour of his horses, but because to himself they appear a source of 

 annoyance ; and here it may be further remarked, as regards wheel ploughs, that, since the wheels must 

 always have a tendency to increase the draught, and on that account are objectionable, so also, if a 

 plough can be wielded with equal and perhaps better effect without wheels than with them, the excuse 

 that a wheel plough may be wielded by a man of inferior qualifications is of small value. Any man may 

 be trained to handle a plough, though every man will not be equally successful ; and since in the whole 

 of Scotland not a wheel plough is to be found, except as a curiosity, while her ploughing is at least not 

 inferior to that of any part of the kingdom, and as the chances are surely equal that the ploughmen are 

 not all equally good, it is evident that ploughing can be satisfactorily performed without wheels. If 

 ploughing can thus be performed over one part of the kingdom with an implement of the simplest forrp 

 and in a satisfactory and economical manner, there can be no necessity for using a more complicated, 

 and more expensive machine to perform the same w ork in another part of the kingdom, where it is at 

 least not better done or done at less expense." (Stephens' s Book of the Farm, vol. i. p. 643.) 



8188 2664. The Vley Cultivator. One manufactured at Lord Ducie's iron-works at Uley in Gloucester- 

 shire, and known as Lord Ducie's, or the Uley cultivator, is recommended as the best, and, frctn the descrip- 

 tion, it appears to be an admirable implement, and by far the best of its kind which has yet appeared. It 

 has been tried for paring as well as stirring, and is found to move the whole surface of the ground most 



perfectly. " The implement is altogether about 6 cwt. in 

 weight. It is supplied at Uley at prices varying accord- 

 ing to the size, weight. &c. at which it is ordered, cer- 

 tain forms of the implement being intended for two 

 horses and others for four." According to the Trans. 

 H.S.. the iron work is chiefly cast, the weight about 

 10 cwt., and the price IS/. 



8189. Crosskilfs grass land cultivator (fig. l\54.). The 

 object of this implement is to loosen the surface of old 

 grass lands, and facilitate the application of manure to 

 the roots of plants, so as to force them to smother the 

 moss with which such lands are generally infested. 

 The mechanical operation of the implement consists in 

 the cutting a series of grooves, about six inches asun- 

 der, or any width a more extended practice may find 

 to be the best, and at any depth that is suitable to the 

 nature of the soil, and the kind of manure intended to 

 be used. The cutters, being attached to a lever, can 

 be adjusted in a moment, in the event of their being 

 choked with long grass, &c, and to the machine is b\< d 

 a simple self-acting drill, by which the manure and seeds 

 are deposited, and the land afterwards rolled; in this 

 manner the manure is secured from the enormous loss 

 that is inseparable from the ordinary method of apply- 

 ing manures, and the seeds are ready to be acted upon 

 by rain and sunshine, the well-known agents of vegeta- 

 tion. (Johnson's Agr. Imp. 1843, p. 21.) 

 8190. UvckvaW* horse-hoe. for hoeing and thinning turnips (fig. 1155.). The idea of an implement of 

 this kind occurred so long ago as 1778 to Mr. Skirving, of Strathruddy in Fifeshire, one of the Scottish 



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