PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



trength and durability, and some also in poinS 

 of convenience. Among the conveniences may 

 be mentioned, the facility which they afford of 

 bending the left handle to the right of the 

 straight line first introduced by Mr. Wilkie 

 of Uddingston (who, if not the inventor, 

 may certainly be considered the greatest im- 

 prover of iron ploughs,) by which means the 

 ploughman is permitted to walk with ease ;n 

 the bottom of the furrow. The stilts or handles 

 may also be joined to the body of the plough, 

 in such a way as to admit of taking off and 

 packing for a foreign country, or raising or 

 is the points of the handles according 

 to tin- size of the ploughman, as in Weather- 

 ley's plough. 



A wooden Scotch plough with iron mount- 

 ings, says Mr. Stephens, usually weighs 13 

 stones imperial, and an iron one for the same 

 work 15 stones. The cost of a wooden one is 

 31. 16*., capable of being serviceable, with 

 repairs, for the currency of a lease of 19 years ; 

 that of an iron one 4/. 4s., which will last a 

 lifetime, or at least many years. Some farm- 

 ers, however, still prefer the wooden one, al- 

 ledging that it goes more steadily than the iron. 

 Whatever of prejudice there may be in this 

 predilection for the wooden plough, it must be 

 owned that the iron one executes its work in a 

 satisfactory manner. There is, I believe, no 

 great difference of economy in the use of the 

 two kinds of ploughs. (Stephens.) 



Of siring ploughs, .says Loudon, by far the 

 best is the implement known in England as the 

 Scotch plough. It is almost the only plough used 

 in Scotland, and throughout a considerable 

 part of England ; it is drawn with less power 

 than wheel-ploughs, at least, those of the old 

 construction, the friction not being so great ; 

 and it probably admits of greater variations in 

 regard to the breadth and depth of the furrow- 

 slice. It is usually drawn by two horses abreast 

 in common tillage; but for ploughing between 

 the rows of the drill culture, a smaller one 

 drawn by one horse is commonly employed. 

 A plough of the swing kind, having a mould- 

 board on each side, is also used both in form- 

 ing narrow ridges for turnips and potatoes, and 

 in laying up the earth to the roots of the plants, 

 after the intervals have been cleaned and pul- 

 verized by the horse and hand-hoe. This 

 plough is sometimes made in such a manner 

 that the mould-board may be shifted from one 

 side to the other when working on hilly 

 grounds ; by which means the furrows are all 

 laid in the same direction. 



String ploughs, similar to the Scotch plough, have 

 been long known in England. In Blythe's Im- 

 prover Improved we have engravings of several 

 ploughs ; and what he calls the "plain plough" 

 does not seem to differ much in its principal 

 parts from the one now in use. Amos, in an 

 J'.f.*. :n J^rirul'iiral Machines, says, that a per- 

 son named Lummis (whom he is mistaken in 

 cal'ing a Scotchman) " first attempted its con- 

 struction upon mathematical principles, which 

 he learned in Holland ; but having obtained a 

 patent for the making and vending of this 

 plough, he withheld the knowledge of these 

 principles from the public. However, one 

 "ashley, plough-wright to Sir Charles Turner 

 902 



of Kirklcathem, having a knowledge of those 

 principles, constructed upon them a vast num- 

 ber of ploughs. Afterwards his son establish- 

 ed a manufactory for the making of them at 

 Rotherham. Hence they obtained the name 

 of the Rotherham plough ; but in Scotland they 

 were called the Dutch or patent plfegh." Plate 

 17,a, represents a Rotherham plough constructed 

 chiefly of wood. The Americans have claimed 

 the priority of the invention ; and President 

 Jefferson, of the United States, presented the 

 principles for the construction of a mould- 

 board, first to the Institute of France, and next 

 to the Board of Agriculture in England. 



The Scotch plough was little known in Scot- 

 land till about the year 1764, when Small's 

 method of constructing it began to excite at- 

 tention (Small's Treatise on Ploughs and Wheel 

 Carriages, 1784; and Lord Kaimes's Gentleman 

 Farmer}. This ingenious mechanic formed 

 the mould-board upon distinct and intelligible 

 principles, and afterwards made it of cast iron. 

 His appendage of a chain has been since laid 

 aside. It has been disputed, whether he took 

 the Rotherham, or the old Scotch plough, for 

 the basis of his improvements. The swing 

 plough has been since varied a little, in some 

 parts of Scotland, from Small's form, for the 

 purpose of adapting it more completely to parti- 

 cular situations and circumstances. Since 1810, 

 this plough has been very generally made en- 

 tirely of iron. In Northumberland, the mould- 

 board is made less concave than in Berwick- 

 shire, and in Berwickshire it is even less con- 

 cave than in Small's plough. Different degrees 

 of concavity in the mould-board suit different 

 soils : soft and sandy soil requires most, and a 

 loamy or clayey soil least concavity. The 

 following are the principal varieties of the 

 improved Scotch plough at present in use in 

 the most improved districts of the north, and 

 among scientific farmers in all countries. 



SmalVs plough. The mould-board is more 

 concave than in most other varieties, and this 

 may be considered its characteristic as com- 

 pared with these varieties. It is sometimes 

 drawn by a chain proceeding from the muzzle 

 to the head, in order to lessen the strain on the 

 draught-beam,and in that case it is called Small's 

 chain-plough. It is commonly made of wood and 

 iron. PI. 17, b. For a design of the East Lo- 

 thian plough, or Small's improved, see PI. 17, 

 c, d, the figures representing two views. 



In this plough the proper lines of the body 

 on the land-side lie all in one plane, which, in 

 working, should be held in the vertical position, 

 or very slightly inclining to the left. The 

 coulter slightly oblique to the land-side plane, 

 the point standing towards the ieft, the rake 

 of the coulter varies from 55 to 65. In the 

 mould-board the vertical sectional lines ap- 

 proximate to straight lines, giving the charac- 

 ter of apparent concavity, and it is truncated 

 forward. Share pointed, with a feather or 

 cutter standing to the right, having a breadth 

 of at least % the breadth of the furrow, the 

 cutting edge of the feather lying nearly as low 

 as the plane of the sole. The neck of the 

 share is prolonged backward, joining and co- 

 inciding with the curve of the mould-board, 

 which curvature is also carried forward on the 



