No. 4. 



A^^ricuHural Address. 



107 



nary ploughs of tlie countiy, and who value 

 a plough according as it may make smooth 

 work; that is, with a light draft will turn 

 over a wide and deep furrow, lay it over 

 carefully and smoothly, with unbroken sur- 

 face or edge. If in addition to this it is held 

 by a good ploughman, and a furrow is made 

 as straight as a line, why you have the «e 

 plus ultra of a plough. It is granted that 

 the Moore plough may do all tiiis, hut it is 

 only necessary tor the committee or any one 

 else, to try the Proutij plough a siiiiile sen- 

 son on their own farms, to satisfy tiiem by 

 observation that this is precisely what the 

 farmers do not loant. It will no doubt be ad- 

 mitted, that if we could cultivate our fields as 

 we do our gardens, it would be better for us. 

 Now what would we think of a man under- 

 taking to dig our gardens, were he to take 

 up a spadeful of earth and lay it down care- 

 fully to prevent its breaking or falling to 

 pieces? Do we not on the contrary tell him 

 to pulverize it thoroughly, and break up all 

 the toughness, and knock the lumps to 

 pieces. The Moore plough indeed, proved 

 itself at this exhibition to be good of its 

 kind, but the Prontij plough works on a 

 different principle from all other ploughs, 

 and it is in favour of this principle I would 

 urge it upon the attention of every man who 

 has an acre of ground to be ploughed, viz: 

 the principle of ploughing the ground and 

 at the same time pulverizing it, opening tiie 

 turned furrow into cracks, breaking its text- 

 ure, and admitting the sun and air between 

 the particles of soil, and thus reducing it to 

 a state of garden mould or fineness, and 

 giving no harbour in the shape of impene- 

 trable clods, to seeds of weeds. That the 

 Prouty plough will do this, is knov.n to 

 every one who has given it a fair trial on 

 his own farm for a single year. But how 

 is this to be known to a committee who have 

 never seen it before, and on an hour's trial, 

 and in the hands of a new ploughman, un- 

 used to the peculiar manner of holding it? 

 Their attention would first be drawn to the 

 rough and broken condition in which it 

 leaves the soil, and on this account, which 

 is one of its recommendations,' it would be 

 condemned. Ploughing with the Prouty 

 plough, is said to be allied to spading, and it 

 is in my opinion, one of the most valuable 

 additions to our farming tools for the last 

 twenty-five years. It makes us approach in 

 our field culture to what we do in our gar- 

 dens. All this can be said without any dis- 

 pp,ragement to the Moore plough or any 

 other plough. They are different imple- 

 ments, and should be called by different 

 names. 



Suppose a furrow of any given length 



turned over by any of the common plougha 

 of tlie country, and by the Prouty plough, 

 and allowed to lay a couple of weeks before 

 harrowing for tiic reception of the crop; a 

 comparison will then show that in the former 

 case, by the action of the sun and air upon 

 the smooth upturned surface, it has been 

 hardened into clods and masses of earth 

 which are often impervious to the harrow, 

 and afford a shelter for seeds of weeds. In 

 the latter the sun and air have penetrated 

 between the interstices of soil left open by 

 the plough, mouldering it down, and a single 

 harrowing reduces the soil to a fine and fri- 

 able state. At least such has been my ex- 

 perience for the last three years, and these 

 are effects of the Prouty plough which can 

 not be seen by a committee on a trial for 

 premium. Observer. 



Tenth mo. lOtli, 1845. 



Communicated for the Fanners' Cabinet. 



ADDRESS, 



Delivered before the Chester and Delatoare 

 Agricultural Society, Oct. 7th, 1845: 



By John S. Bowen, Esq. 



Gentlemen, — One of the most remarkable 

 features of the present age, as compared with 

 all other periods in the history of the world, 

 is to be found in the organization of associa- 

 tions to promote objects of great public inte- 

 rest. " There is scarcely an art, or a sci- 

 ence, scarcely any thing agreeable, useful, 

 or instructive, for which we have not estab- 

 lished special societies, and thus wonderfully 

 increased and strengthened the imperfect 

 means and powers of individual man. The 

 value, the efficiency, the simplicity of such 

 unions is conspicuous in each and all." 



But there is no branch of human know- 

 ledge, there is no field of extensive inquiry, 

 in which the benefits of association may be 

 so richly found, are so conducive to personal 

 interests, or the general good, as that which 

 now engages our attention ; and when we 

 for a moment reflect that all the art of agri- 

 culture is the pure result of experience, it 

 becomes a principle little short of self-evi- 

 dent, that the interchange of experience 

 through the medium of the.se associations, 

 is the most direct and sure means of mu- 

 tual improvement. 



In former ages, when the devastations of 

 war were the chief medium of commu- 

 nication ; — when all neighbouring provinces 

 were at enmity, through the incessant feuds 

 of their brutal lords, the farmer had little 

 knowledge beyond the experience of his 

 own valley. In our day of prolonged 

 peace, when the nations are seeking great- 



