166 



Trial of Ploughs. 



V^OL. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Trial of Ploughs. 



Mr. Editor, — As it has been proposed to 

 Mr. Prouty to give a day's ploughing to as- 

 certain the value of the Centre-draught 

 Plough on different soils and situations, and 

 which proposal that gentleman has accepted, 

 offering the use of a plough and pair of horses 

 at any time and place that might be agreed 

 upon by a committee appointed by the Phila- 

 delphia Agricultural iSociety, I thought it 

 might be interesting to the agricultural com- 

 munity to know how such trials are conduct- 

 ed in England and Scotland, where no ex- 

 pense or pains are spared to lest the value of 

 this all-important implement, the plough. 

 And although the proposed trial before the 

 committee, to be appointed at no distant day, 

 is to be confined to the centre-draught plough, 

 with the view to test its powers in different 

 soils, whether light or heavy or gravelly, sod 

 or fallow, &c., and especially to the laying 

 its furrow flat, as well as to any angle given, 

 yet the account of a late trial in Scotland — 

 although it was for a different purpose, name- 

 ly, a trial between several ploughs offered for 

 competition — must still be interesting to a 

 great majority of your readers, who are not 

 aware of the operation as it is performed in a 

 country where, to the single act of turning 

 the soil to a depth which we in this country 

 can scarce have any idea of, is to be attributed 

 much of the success attendant on their labours. 



The trial was made by the Marquis of 

 Tweeddale, at Yester, the dynamometer used 

 being one on Reguin's principle, satisfactory 

 to all. 



The marquis observes, "It has always ap- 

 peared to me that the only rational and pro- 

 fitable manner of trying whether the English 

 ploughs were lighter in draught, superior in 

 strength, more efficient in doing their work, 

 as well as more economical to the farmer, 

 was to make them work in the same field 

 with any of the common improved Scotch 

 ploughs, those which I employ being of the 

 variety commonly called Small's Plough. 

 The operation which afforded the trial was 

 crossing stubble land that had been drained 

 during winter, but which had become excess- 

 ively dry and hard; in this field some trees 

 had been taken out by the roots. On the first 

 day, five Scotch wooden ploughs with iron 

 mould plates on Small's principle were drawn 

 each by three horses, the ploughmen guiding 

 them and holding the ploughs. The work 

 was well done, the depth of the furrow was 

 from twelve to thirteen inches, the breadth, 

 from ten to eleven. During the day and the 

 previous night, as well as the following night, 

 rain fell, which moistened the land, and 1 or- 

 dered the English ploughs to be tried the next 



morning, when my steward feeling anxious 

 to bring the English ploughs to their work by 

 degrees, yoked them first with a pair of horses 

 each, putting Ransome's plough with wheels 

 to the depth of eight inches only, but it nei- 

 ther could throw the furrow-slice over, nor 

 clear the furrow, the beam not allowing the 

 plough to go deeper without scraping the 

 ground ; and in ploughing, where some small 

 fibres of a tree-root were left in the ground, 

 the coulter was broken in two, the sock was 

 broken also, and the beam and mould-board 

 were separated from the stilts or handles, 

 without the horses being put fully to their 

 strength. The same pair of horses were then 

 put to a Scotch plough, and as soon as they 

 had cleared out the preceding furrow, they 

 ploughed 12 inches deep by 10 in breadth, 

 passmg through every obstacle until the 

 morning's work was finished. In the after- 

 noon, the .same ploughman tried Hart's swing- 

 plough, but it would neither go the depth nor 

 clear the furrow like the Scotch ploughs, I 

 was in the field on this occasion — in passing 

 amongst some small fibres of the root of a 

 tree, the iron plate that is attached to the 

 beam for holding the coulter was broken to 

 pieces, and the screws were drawn out. I 

 then desired the ploughman to clean out the 

 furrow with the Scotch plough and give the 

 horses their full swing — the plough was 

 brought up once by a root, the horses laid 

 their full weight on it and were held fast; I 

 then sent for another horse and bade the 

 ploughman not to spare the plough if it met 

 with opposition ; it however carried every 

 thing before it, notwithstanding the root.s, 

 stones, &c., through which it had to pass. Of 

 these two ploughs. Hart's has proved itself 

 to be of the strongest construction and the 

 plough that can throw over the deepest 

 furrow-slice, but it does not clean the bot- 

 tom of the furrow ; Ransome's being the 

 best for this, when ploughing lea, but both 

 appear to do their work best when going 

 slowly. To those who saw these ploughs in 

 operation, it was quite evident that neither 

 of them would do all the work performed by 

 the Scotch ploughs; and in addition to this, 

 I have never found the Scotch horses want- 

 ing in strength to perform any work required 

 of them when put to a Scotch plough on 

 Small's principle. From these trials, I feel 

 convinced that the English ploughs are not 

 lighter in draught, equal in strength, so efB- j 

 cient, nor so economical as Small's Scotch j 

 Plough." j 



Now, having had experience in the use of I 

 Small's Scotch plough, I must remark, they \ 

 are so sharp at the breast, narrow at the heel [ 

 and long in the sole or foot, that by their long I 

 and wedge-shape, they are calculated to over- 

 come obstacles which would overcome th« 



