170 X)F RIDGlNtt. 



way pointed out. Only one-fourth of the time is lost, but 

 that is doubly repaid, by getting the work properly done, 

 and the advantage in the after ploughing. Mr Blackie 

 of Holydean, in Roxburghshire, who makes this remark, 

 states, that he has cultivated a great deal of ground on this 

 principle, and that he is never afraid of any land, however 

 steep, if there is soil enough ; and that by this mode land 

 may be ploughed, which would otherwise be impracticable. 

 In similar situations, other judicious husbandmen prefer 

 ploughing in diagonal ridges, so constructed as to admit 

 of ploughing up hill without material injury to the horses; 

 and in this way the furrows are much less apt to be run 

 away or sanded by heavy rains. Where the land is exces- 

 sively steep, it is often necessary to plough directly across, 

 throwing the plits or furrow slices all down hill ; and, with 

 the ordinary plough, going back empty. But where there 

 is much land of this excessive steepness to cultivate, a 

 plough with a shifting mould-board, usually called a turn* 

 wrest plough, admits of ploughing both backwards and for- 

 ward, shifting the mould-board in such a manner as always 

 to throw the furrow-slice down hill. These two last me- 

 thods have been suggested by Mr Kerr of Ayton, in his 

 Berwickshire Report, who has seen both practised, and 

 executed the latter himself.* 



Another rule regarding this point is, to direct the ridges 

 north and south, if the ground will permit. In this di- 

 rection, the east and west sides of a ridge divide the sun 



* The Turn-wrest Plough, with a shifting mould-board, is certainly 

 adapted to ploughing across the slope of hills, as it enables the farmer 

 to turn the furrow always downward* It is, however, attended with 

 this disadvantage, that it brings, lower and lower, the staple of the 

 soil. 



