PLOUGHING. 



PLOUGHING. 



Great Britain, are rapidly coming into use in 

 the United States, where various sizes are 

 made, the largest being a heavy tug for four 

 horses, whilst the smallest may be worked by 

 two mules or one stout horse. Those made 

 by Prouty and Mears are very efficient imple- 

 ments, the prices varying from $8 for the sin- 

 gle horse, and $10 to $12 for the larger sizes. 

 A more simple and cheaper subsoil plough, 

 which has proved very successful on trial, has 

 lately been made in the city of New York, 

 adapted to one or more horses. These consist 

 of a common plough from which all the upper 

 portion of the mould-board has been cut away, 

 so as to leave the mere skeleton, which strikes 

 deep and stirs up the subsoil very effectually. 

 The price of these varies from 4 to $6, ac- 

 cording to size, &c. They may be had in New 

 York at most of the agricultural implement 

 stores, and in Philadelphia, of E. Chandler, 

 agricultural implement maker, 196 Market 

 street. See SCBSOIL PLOUGHING. 



PLOUGHING. The art of turning over the 

 soil by means of the plough. There are va- 

 rious kinds of ploughing. Trench ploughing 

 is effected by the plough passing twice along 

 the same furrow: the first time for the purpose 

 of throwing the surface soil into the bottom of 

 the furrow, and the second time for raising a 

 furrow-slice from under that which had been 

 already turned over, and raising it up, &c., 

 turning it upon the first furrow-slice, by means 

 of which the surface soil is entirely buried, 

 and a stratum of subsoil laid over it: thus 

 effecting in the field what trenching with the 

 spade does in the garden. Trench ploughing 

 can only be employed with advantage where 

 the subsoil is naturally dry and of good qua- 

 lity, or where it has been rendered so by drain- 

 ing and subsoil ploughing; for bad subsoil 

 brought to the surface, unless considerably 

 altered in composition and texture, would be 

 unfit for receiving seeds or plants. 



To excel in the art of ploughing, the plough- 

 man should take a pleasure in his work, and 

 not rest satisfied till he can make his furrows 

 in a straight line, and lay the slices as much 

 as possible at the same angle from the bottom 

 of the furrow. He should open his first furrow 

 in a uniform manner, and proceed with regu- 

 larity of width and depth of the furrow-slice, 

 and "shut up" clean at last. 



Ploughing matches, which of late years have 

 been so general, have given a very increased 

 interest to ploughmen and ploughboys. The 

 face of the country is in many parts strikingly 

 improved by the change which sound plough- 

 ing has effected, and much of this may be 

 traced to the lively interest which has been 

 paid to this part of tillage by agricultural so- 

 cieties and by practical farmers. I never knew 

 a ploughing-match meeting established in any 

 rural district without very beneficial effects be- 

 ing produced on the character of the peasantry. 

 It never fails to elevate the ploughman in his 

 own opinion ; it induces him to strive to excel 

 in his honourable vocation, to please his em- 

 ployer, and to stand well in the estimation of 

 his richer neighbours. The very assemblage 

 of the neighbouring farmers and gentry to wit- 



ness the trial of skill, brings out all the latent 

 pride of the roughest ploughman. The fto\vers 

 in his horses' bridles, the network on their 

 ears, the new, gay-coloured tape with which 

 their manes and tails are braided, betray the 

 little feelings of honest pride in the plough- 

 man's bosom. When at a recent meeting I 

 noticed the air of triumph with which the vic- 

 tor in the field of Langley, in Buckingham- 

 shire, after having had the queen's prize of 

 five guineas awarded to him, marched his 

 sleek, well-fed plough-horses off the field, with a 

 sprig of laurel in their bridles, I could not but 

 admit that the effect of that meeting would be 

 felt, not only amongst the contending plough- 

 men there assembled, but through the adjoin- 

 ing hundreds. The triumph, too, was not con- 

 fined to the ploughman ; his master, nay, his 

 parish, shared in the honour; and I will en- 

 gage that many an honest ploughman, between 

 one year's meeting and the next, as he ploughs 

 "his acre," thinks of the field of meeting, and 

 of the best means of securing a prize. Such 

 meetings, moreover, teach even the most igno- 

 rant the importance of such affairs; that there 

 is a great difference in the neatness, style, and 

 profit to the fanner where the ploughmen ex- 

 ecute their work properly ; and they are pretty 

 sure to convince even the most listless tha't 

 there is more skill required in a ploughman 

 than many persons would readily believe. 



I believe it admits of no doubt, says Mr. 

 Stephens, that, since the institution of plough- 

 ing matches throughout the country, the cha- 

 racter of our farm-servants as ploughmen has 

 risen to considerable celebrity, not but that in- 

 dividual ploughmen could have been found 

 before the practice of matches existed as dex- 

 terous as any of the present day, but the gene- 

 ral diffusion of good ploughing must be ob- 

 vious to every one who has been in the habit 

 of observing the ploughed surface of the coun- 

 try. This improvement is not to be ascribed 

 to the institution of ploughing matches alone, 

 because superior construction of implements, 

 better kept, better matched, and superior races 

 of horses, and superior judgment and taste in 

 field labour and in the farmer himself, are too 

 important elements in influencing the conduct 

 of ploughmen, to be overlooked in a considera- 

 tion of this question. 



But be the primary motive for improvement 

 in the most important branch of field labour as 

 it may, there cannot be a doubt that a properly 

 regulated emulation amongst workmen of any 

 class, proves a strong incentive to the produc- 

 tion of superior workmanship, and the more 

 generally the inducement is extended, the im- 

 provement arising from it may be expected to 

 be the more generally diffused ; and on this 

 account the plough medals of the Highland and 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland, being open for 

 competition to all parts of Scotland every year, 

 have perhaps excited a spirit of emulation 

 among ploughmen, by rewarding those who 

 excel, beyond any thing to be seen in any other 

 country. Wherever 15 ploughs can be gather- 

 ed together for competition at any time and 

 place, there the ploughman who obtains the 

 first premium offered by those interested in the 



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