PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



cannot by any means be brought so handily to 

 follow the undulations of the surface. In 

 leaving one ridge, the share will pass too shal- 

 low, and in entering on the brow of the next, 

 it wi\\ go too deep, or at least deeper than the 

 average of the ploughing. There is also the 

 element of time, which in all farming opera- 

 tions is an important one ; and here wheel 

 ploughs are found to come short by about 25 

 per cent, as compared with swing ploughs. Mr. 

 Pusev, in his paper on the draught of ploughs, 

 incidentally observes : " While the work of our 

 ploughing teams is at best but of an acre 

 upon strong ground (and sometimes as much 

 as one acre upon the lightest), the daily task 

 performed by 2 Scotch horses upon strong land 

 is 1$ acre." This deficiency of effect cannot 

 be attributed to want of power in the horses, 

 for English horses are at least not inferior to 

 those employed in Scotland for agricultural 

 purposes, neither can it be from unskilfulness 

 in the ploughmen, for even the most skilful 

 seem to come short in this respect, by not being 

 able to plough more than of an acre in a 

 day, while with the swing plough almost any 

 ploughman will turn over his acre a day. From 

 the remarks of the same writer, it is to be in- 

 ferred that a Scotch swing plough was incapa- 

 ble of being drawn through a certain clay soil 

 by 2 horses, while the wheel ploughs were found 

 to perform the work with tolerable ease, though 

 still a heavy draught. There may be such 

 cases ; but from the conditions of this par- 

 ticular case, where the draught that baffled the 

 horses in the swing plough seems not to have 

 exceeded 52 stones, there is an ambiguity in 

 the matter that leads to doubts of the accuracy 

 on the part of the observers of the experiment. 

 We know well that in working the Scotch 

 swing plough in an 8 or 9-inch furrow on stiff 

 land, the draught is not unfrequently as high 

 as 7 cwt. or 56 stones ; but 2 good horses never 

 shrink from the task ; and how a less draught, 

 whatever be the soil, should have baffled the 

 exertions of 2 good horses in a swing plough, 

 even in the Oxford clay, requires some further 

 investigation to be satisfactory. 



Among agricultural writers, it seems, says 

 Mr. Stephens, to be a prevalent opinion, that 

 land when ploughed receives a curvature of 

 surface ; whereas, correct ploughing, that is, 

 making the furrow-slices on the same ridge all 

 alike, cannot possibly give the surface any 

 other form than it had before it was ploughed. 

 If the former surface were curved, then the 

 newly ploughed surface would also be curved ; 

 but if it were flat, the new surface will be flat 

 also. A thoroughly good ploughman, and I 

 have known a few, but only a few of such 

 valuable men, avoids so objectionable a prac- 

 tice, and ploughs always a true, sound furrow, 

 making it larger or smaller as the particular 

 state of the work may require. 



Without putting much value on the informa- 

 tion, it may serve as a fact to refer to, in case 

 it should be wanted, to state the weight of earth 

 turned over in ploughing. If 10 inches are 

 taken as a fair breadth for a furrow-slice, there 

 will be 18 such slices across a ridge of 15 feet 

 in breadth ; and taking 7 inches as a proper 

 depth for such a furrow-slice, a cross section 

 906 



of the slice will have 70 square inches. A 

 cubic foot of earth is thus turned over in every 

 inches and a little more of length of such 

 a slice ; and taking 2-7 as the specific gravity 

 of ordinary soil, every 24 inches and a frac- 

 ion more of such a slice will weigh 12 stones 

 1 Ib. imperial. 



The usual sp'eed of horses at the plough may 

 be ascertained in this way. A ridge of 5 yards 

 in breadth will require a length of 968 yards to 

 contain an imperial acre; and to plough which 

 at 9 bouts, of 10-inch breadth of furrow-slice, 

 counting no stoppages, will make the horses 

 walk 9^ miles, which in 10 hours gives a speed 

 of 1742^ yards per hour. But as ridges are 

 not made of 968 yards in length, and as horses 

 cannot draw a plough that distance without 

 being affected in their wind, and as allowance 

 must be made for time lost in turning at the 

 ends of the ridges, as well as for affording rest 

 to the horses, that speed will have to be con- 

 siderably increased to do that quantity of work 

 in the time. By experiment it has been found, 

 that 1 hour 19 minutes, out or 8 hours, are lost 

 by turnings while ploughing an acre on ridges 

 of 274 yards in length, with an 8-inch furrow- 

 slice. Hence, in ploughing an acre on ridges of 

 250 yards in length, which is the length of ridge 

 I recommend as the best for horses in draught, 

 in 10 hours, with a 10-inch furrow-slice, the 

 time lost by turnings is 1 hour 22 minutes. I 

 presume that the experiment alluded to does 

 not include the necessary stoppages for rest to 

 the horses, but which should be included ; for 

 however easy the length of ridge may be made 

 for draught, horses cannot go on walking in 

 the plough for 5 hours together (one yoking) 

 without taking occasional rests. Now 250 

 yards of length of ridge give nearly 4 ridges 

 to the acre, or 36 bouts ; and allowing a rest 

 of 1 minute in every other bout, 18 minutes will 

 have to be added to the 1 hour 22 minutes lost, 

 or very nearly 1$ hour of lost time, out of the 

 10 hours, for turnings and rest. Thus 18,000 

 yards will be ploughed in 8 hours, or at the 

 rate of 1 mile 422 yards per hour. I think this 

 result is near the truth in regard to the plough- 

 ing of lea in spring ; it is too little in ploughing 

 red land in summer, and perhaps too much in, 

 ploughing stubble land in winter; but, as lea- 

 ploughing is the criterion by which all others 

 are estimated, this result may be taken as a 

 near approximation to the truth. 



The comparative time lost in turning at the 

 ends of long and short ridges may be seen 

 from the following table, constructed from data 

 furnished by the experiment above alluded to: 



Thus it appears that a ridge of no more than 

 78 yards in length requires 5 hours 11 minutes 

 of time to turn at the landings, to plough an 

 acre in 10 hours, with a 10-inch furrow-slice ; 

 whereas a ridge of 274 yards in length only re- 



