PLOUGH. 



PLOUGH. 



hand in an jccount of the New York trials, 

 given in th Brooklyn Star, we transfer to our 

 columns with pleasure, merely remarking that 

 we have verified the correctness of the foreign 

 results, by reference to the reports in the Jour- 

 nals of the English Royal Agricultural Society, 

 and the Scotch Highland Agricultural Society, 

 from which they were taken. The reader will 

 see that the best British plough, Tester No. 1, 

 weight 170 Ibs., draught 380 Ibs., removed a fur- 

 row-slice of only 10 inches by 6, while the best 

 American, Barnaby and Mooers' double mould- 

 board side-hill plough (the same that received 

 the premium at Syracuse), weight 142 Ibs., 

 draught 350 Ibs., removed a furrow-slice of 12 

 inches by 8, or nearly twice as large. We are 

 gratified to learn that this plough, which re- 

 ceived the premiums at Syracuse and New 

 York, has been presented by the Institute to 

 the Royal Agricultural Society, and that doubt- 

 less it will be subjected to comparison with the 

 ploughs of that country. In examining the list 

 of English agricultural implements, we have 

 often remarked the fact, that English ploughs 

 range in prices from $20 to $30, while the best 

 improved American ones do not cost more 

 than from 10 to $15. The table will be un- 

 derstood without further explanation. 



In a report of a committee appointed to su- 

 perintend a trial of ploughs near Baltimore, 

 in 1842, the following results are stated. 



Depth of 

 Plough. furrow. 



1. Barnaby & Mooers' 5 2-0 in. 



2. Moil's Wiley plough 6 6-9 



3. Prouty & Mears' cen- 



tre-draught plough, 

 Boston - - - 5 1-9 



4. Howard Plough, Bos- 



ton - - .v - 5 7-9 14 550 



5. The Davis Plougtr This plough worked well, but 



was withdrawn before trial with the dynamometer. 



The committee remark, "the task to the com- 

 mittee, of deciding where such excellence was 

 to be found in each of the implements contend- 

 ing, was one of difficulty, and would have been 

 more so, but for the various purposes to which 

 the Barnaby and Mooers' plough is adapted, it 

 being in fact a plough of all work, and from 

 the fact of its executing its work with so much 

 less draught than either of the others." 



In commenting on the qualities of the seve- 

 ral ploughs submitted to trial, the committee 

 say of Barnaby and Mooers' side-hill plough, 

 the one used: "There is a peculiarity about 

 this plough which is worthy of note. On the 

 bottom of the furrow, and on the land side, it 

 cuts out fully 12^ inches of the earth, so as to 

 reduce resistance to the turning of the succeed- 

 ing furrow, thereby facilitating, not only that 

 operation, but insuring the exactitude with 

 which it is performed, leaving a clean and 

 broad furrow behind, in which the furrow-horse 

 can walk, and preventing the treading of the 

 ground in turning." 



Although the trials made at the various ex- 

 hibitions have thus far resulted so much in 

 favour of the double mould-board plough of 

 Barnaby and Mooers, still has this been less 

 extensively adopted than it would appear to 

 deserve. Associated with its great merits, there 

 may yet remain some obstacle to its general 

 use, of easy removal. The objection from great 

 914 



furrow. Force. 



12 in. 350 Ibs. 

 13 1-6 562 



12 1-6 500 



weight requiring unusual exertion in throwing 

 out and turning, might possibly be obviated 

 by the addition of a wheel or some other 

 device. 



The price of this plough varies from $-4 for 

 No. 3, a 7 inch seeding plough, to $10 for 

 No. 8, a heavy two or three horse, 12 inch 

 plough. 



The following is a summary notice of the 

 ploughs best known to the farmers of the Mid- 

 dle States. The order in which they are men- 

 tioned is not intended to express the precise 

 dates of their invention or their relative merits. 



Beech's Self-sharpening Plough has a concave 

 mould-board. Its price varies with the size, 

 from $6 to $10, the average price being $8. 



Miles's Plough, known also by the name of 

 Dickson's, has the bar-share, land-side, and lock- 

 coulter of wrought iron. They cost about $13. 

 This plough still retains precedence in the old 

 counties of Pennsylvania, its execution being 

 excellent, and its strength enabling it to con- 

 tend successfully against obstacles met with in. 

 stony ground and tough swards. 



Peacock's Plough. This has been long known 

 and is still extensively used. It has a bar- 

 share and lock-coulter, and is best adapted to 

 soils of a light texture, where shallow work 

 will answer. It does not turn a sod so well as 

 is desirable. 



Wiley Plough. One of the oldest of the 

 cast-iron ploughs still in use is that of B. H. 

 Wiley. The share of this has two points 

 capable of being turned once. It is adapted 

 to stubbles, but does not perform so well in 

 tough sward. 



Woodcock's Plough. For the last few years 

 this has been in extensive use in Lancaster 

 county, Pennsylvania, and Newcastle county, 

 Delaware. It is a self-sharpening implement, 

 with a slightly concave mould-board. A cast- 

 iron angular cutter supplies the place of a 

 coulter. It is sometimes constructed so as to 

 have the mould-board on either the right 

 or left side, thus adapting it to the habits 

 of a few old farmers who retain a partiality 

 for ploughs turning the furrow-slice to the left 

 hand. 



Prouty and Mears's Centre-draught Plough.-One 

 of the chief late improvements on American 

 ploughs consists in lengthening or extending 

 the mould-board, and still retaining the centre- 

 draught principle, a construction which enables 

 the instrument to turn a sod or furrow-slice so 

 as merely to lap, or to lie completely flat, at the 

 discretion of the ploughman. The cost of 

 these ploughs, which possess high merits, va- 

 ries, according to size, from $7 to $12. The 

 larger sizes are provided with a small wheel to 

 each, attached near the beam, a rare thing in 

 America, but which in the present instance 

 serves to render it more easy for the plough to 

 follow the horses with proper steadiness, thus 

 serving to ease the ploughman as well as the 

 horses, the tendency to sink too deeply into the 

 soil being completely checked. With regard 

 to the wheel to ploughs, it is worthy of remark 

 that there is a disposition beginning to be ma 

 nifested in the United States in favour of at 

 least one such appendage. 



Subsoil Ploughs, now so extensively used in 



