PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



is scarcely known, but it promises great ad- 

 vantages. The former is of high antiquity, 

 having been used by the Romans. 



Ploughs with wheels for regulation and 

 steadiness vary considerably in their construc- 

 tion in different places, according to the nature 

 of soils and other circumstances ; but in every 

 form, and in all situations, they probably re- 

 quire less skill in the ploughman. Wheels 

 seem, indeed, to have formed an addition to 

 ploughs, in consequence of the want of expe- 

 rience in ploughmen ; and in all sorts of soil, 

 but more particularly in those which are of a 

 stony and stubborn quality, they afford great 

 assistance to such ploughmen, enabling them 

 to perform their work with greater regularity 

 in respect to depth, and with much more neat- 

 ness in regard to equality of surface. From the 

 friction caused by the wheels, they are gene- 

 rally considered as giving much greater resist- 

 ance, and consequently demand more strength 

 in the team that is employed ; and, besides, are 

 more expensive in their construction, and more 

 liable to be put out of order, as well as more 

 apt to be disturbed in their progress by clods, 

 stones, and other inequalities that may be on 

 the surface of the ground, than those of the 

 swing kind. 



With regard to wheel ploughs, those more 

 especially in which the wheel is placed in the 

 heel of the plough, the following extract from 

 Mr. Stephens's Book of the Farm, will explain 

 both the philosophy and practical effect : 



The application of a wheel in the heel of a 

 plough, does not come under the same mode of 

 reasoning as that under the beam, the former 

 becoming a part of the body, from which all 

 the natural resistance flows; but in viewing it 

 as a part of that body only, we can arrive at 

 certain conclusions which are quite compatible 

 with careful experiments. 



The breadth of the whole rubbing surface 

 in the body of a plough, when turning a furrow, 

 is on an average about 17 inches ; and sup- 

 posing that surface be pressed nearly equal in 

 all parts, we shall have the sole-shoe, which is 

 about 2 inches broad, occupying * part of the 

 surface ; and taking the entire average resist- 

 ance of the plough's body, as before, at 336 lb., 

 we have { of this, equal to 48 lb., as the great- 

 est amount of resistance produced by the sole 

 of the plough. But this is under the supposi- 

 tion that the resistance arises from a uniform 

 degree of friction spread over the whole rub- 

 bing surface of the body ; while we have seen, 

 on the contrary, that the coulter, when acting 

 alone, presents a resistance equal to the entire 

 plough. It is only reasonable, therefore, in 

 absence of further experiments, to conclude, 

 that the fore-parts of the body, the coulter and 

 share, yield a large proportion of the resistance 

 when turning the furrow-slice; but since we 

 cannot appreciate this with any degree of 

 exactness, let the sole have its full share of the 

 resistance before stated, namely, 48 lb. If a 

 wheel is applied at or near the heel of a plough, 

 it can only bear up the hind-part of the sole, 

 and prevent its ordinary friction, which, at the 

 very utmost, cannot be more than half of the 

 entire friction due to the entire sole. Awheel, 

 therefore, placed here, and acting under every 



favouring circumstance, even to the supposed 

 extinction of its own friction, could not reduce 

 the resistance by more than 24 Ibs., being the 

 half of that due to the entire sole, or it is T ' T of 

 the entire resistance. But we cannot imagine 

 a wheel so placed to continue any length of 

 time, without becoming clogged in all direc- 

 tions, thereby greatly increasing its own fric- 

 tion ; and when it is considered that the neces- 

 sarily small portion of any wheel that can be 

 so applied will sink into the subsoil, to an 

 extent that will still bring the .sole of the plough 

 into contact with the sole of the furrow. It 

 will thus be found that the amount of reduction 

 of the general resistance will be very much 

 abridged, certainly not less than one-half, which 

 reduces the whole saving of draught to a quan- 

 tity not exceeding 12 lb., and even this will be 

 always doubtful, from the difficulty of keeping 

 such wheels in good working condition. This 

 view of a wheel placed at the heel has been 

 confirmed by actual experiments, carefully con- 

 ducted, wherein Palmer's patent plough with a 

 wheel in the heel, as patented many years ago 

 (but in this case it was applied on the best prin- 

 ciples), gave indications of increased resistance 

 from the use of the wheel, as compared with 

 the same plough when the wheel was removed ; 

 the difference having been 1$ stone in favour 

 of no wheel. I hesitate not, therefore, to say, 

 that in no case can wheels be of service 

 towards reducing the resistance of the plough, 

 whether they be placed before or behind, or in 

 both positions, and the chances are numerous 

 that they shall act injuriously. That the use 

 of wheels may, under certain circumstances, 

 bring the implement within the management 

 of less skilful hands than is required for the 

 swing plough, must be admitted; but, at the 

 same time, there may be a question whether, 

 even with that advantage, the practice is com- 

 mendable. I should be wanting in candour if, 

 for myself, I answered otherwise than in the 

 negative. 



Having, says Mr. Stephens, in a general way 

 described the construction of the frame-work 

 and the acting parts of the wheel plough, there 

 remains for me to say a few words on the wheels 

 with which it is furnished. I have already 

 adverted to wheels, as they appear to me to 

 affect the draught of ploughs, and have ex- 

 pressed myself in sufficiently distinct language 

 to show that, in my opinion, they must in all 

 cases be injurious, and tend to increase the 

 resistance of the plough to which they are ap- 

 pended, whether they be applied within the 

 body, or under the front, or any other part of 

 the beam. That wheels may be of advantage 

 for the working of a plough in the hands of an 

 unskilful ploughman may be true ; but if this 

 advantage is acquired by a certain additional 

 expenditure of horse-power, which, however 

 much the proprietor of the team may blind 

 himself to, will ultimately, though probably 

 unheeded, tell on his profit and loss account, 

 there will be no gain, but an ultimate loss. It 

 must be admitted, even by the advocates of the 

 wheel plough, that though they may be handled 

 with perfect regularity in ploughing along 

 ridges, whether the holder be an experienced 

 i ploughman or not, yet in cross-ploughing they 

 4 G 2 905 



