JAMES SMALL, THE PLOUGH-MAKER. 13 



hour, has successively contributed to the perfecting of 

 this, the most valuable of all tools. 



JAMES SMALL was the son of a farmer in the county 

 of Berwick, in Scotland, and early learned from his 

 father all the different branches of agricultural labour. 

 As he grew older, he was apprenticed to a carpenter and 

 plough-maker, at Hutton, in the same county. After 

 his apprenticeship he came to England, and worked with 

 a Mr. Robinson of Doncaster, in making wagons and 

 other wheel carriages. He appears to have remained 

 about five years in England, but it was not until his 

 return to his native country that he made the improve- 

 ments in the plough for which his name is celebrated. 

 He settled at Black Adder Mount, in Berwickshire, in 

 the year 1763, under the patronage of John Renton, Esq. 

 of Black Adder. He there established a manufactory of 

 ploughs and other farming tools, and made many ex- 

 periments on the value of the implements by trying 

 them on some land which he there occupied. At that 

 time the old Scotch plough was chiefly in use through- 

 out Berwickshire. It was drawn by a team consisting 

 of one pair of horses, and four, or sometimes six oxen. 

 The smallest number was a pair of horses, and a pair of 

 oxen attended by a driver. Small endeavoured to make 

 an implement that should be stronger, and at the same 

 time lighter, and easier of draught, than that plough ; 

 and he was remarkably successful. A plough was con- 

 structed by him, which completely astonished all VTIC 

 had been accustomed to the heavy and clumsy plough' 

 of the country ; and so much more easy was it to wort 

 with Small's plough than with any previous ones, that 

 many ploughmen in Berwickshire offered to supply the 

 woodwork if their masters would supply the remaining 

 parts, and pay the other charges of the implement. A 

 great secret of Small's success in what he undertook, 

 appears to have been a rule which he laid down for him- 

 self, that whatever he did should be done well and com- 

 pletely, ivhatever pains and trouble it might cost him to 



