No. 9. 



77/6 Centre-Draught mid Subsoil Ploughs. 



285 



in an especial manner, comes home to their 

 bosoms; furnmliing them and yourself with 

 much orierinal matter for farther discussion, 

 uniting all in the bonds of friendship, and at 

 the same time doing much for the success of 

 the "Cabinet," which requires only to be 

 better known to be properly appreciated — but 

 to the purpose. 



1 found the ploughs at work on a piece of 

 clover-lay that had been thickly covered with 

 manure from the barn-yard, for the purpose 

 of ascertaining whether both could be covered 

 by the centre-draught plough, so effectually 

 as to leave nothing in sight, as had been re- 

 presented to be the fact, by those who had 

 eeen its powers ; and here we were witnesses 

 of the fact, for after the plough had passed, 

 not a particle of either dung or turf was to be 

 seen, and no one would have known but the 

 field had been a fallow ! The plough followed 

 the horses surprisingly easy, which is, I un- 

 derstand, its peculiar quality, but I could per- 

 ceive that much of its ease of draught, under 

 circumstances where other ploughs would 

 have " risen up and walked off," as some one 

 Bays, arose from the use of a small wheel — 

 the first I had ever seen attached to a plough 

 — fixed near the end of the beam ; the pres- 

 sure which fell upon it, keeping the plough 

 in its place, even when choked with the long, 

 rolling dung. And this was not the only 

 good effect, for it was as great a cause of 

 ease to the ploughman as to the horses, which 

 stepped off with ease and confidence, being 

 relieved from the checks and snatches which 

 60 often take place, by reason of the swing 

 plough sinking occasionally too deep in the 

 soil. 



But to the principle, which has been pa- 

 tented, is this plough indebted for its great 

 superiority ; for, leaning as it does, very much 

 towards the furrow whilst going, it is made 

 to undermine the land side, taking up a por- 

 tion of the next furrow in a stale of pulverized 

 soil without turf, and throwing it over; caus- 

 ing it to fail exactly in the interstice between 

 that and the last-turned furrow — that particu- 

 lar spot which, with all other ploughs, consti- 

 tutes the seam, from whence the grass turned 

 over, is seen to spring with redoubled vigour, 

 showing very distinctly, long rows of vegeta- 

 tion, from one end of the field to the other. 

 By this undermining operation, a portion of 

 the turf is left attached to the soil, to be turned 

 over with the next furrow-slice to the bottom 

 of the furrow ; and it is owing to this pecu- 

 liarity of construction, that the centre-draught 

 plough has taken the premium for the lightest 

 draught, in every trial to which it has been 

 submitted, by the only criterion by which to 

 form a judgment, namely, the dynamometer ; 

 and it is plain to see that this must be so, for 

 the next furrow, undermined and deprived of 



its support by the cutting away of its lower 

 or aris edge, as it might be termed, must, in 

 the nature of things, turn easier and more 

 completely, than if all had remained square 

 and unremoved. But there are other pecu- 

 liarities still to be noticed ; for the plough is 

 longer in the ground than any I had ever be- 

 fore seen, which is the cause of its steadiness, 

 so remarkable in going; this great length 

 might have been in a degree objectionable, 

 had that not been obviated by the proportion- 

 ate greater length of the handles and beam, 

 which are so mathematically adjusted, that 

 the body of the plough forming sl fulcrum, the 

 ploughman has the power to poise the ma- 

 chine with the ease of a well-adjusted pair of 

 scales ; the weight of a few ounces being suf- 

 ficient to raise or lower the beam or handles, 

 with the utmost precision. 



The construction of the point and share is 

 a new invention, and seems to be about the 

 most perfect that can be devised. In the 

 common cast-iron plough, as soon as the point 

 is worn away from the land-side, it is useless, 

 and requires to be replaced by a new one; 

 but here, the point is moveable, and consists 

 of a chisel ; the wearing away from the land- 

 side only sharpening it to a narrower point, 

 which can be turned in an instant; and when 

 that also is worn away, then the other end, 

 which forms another chisel, can be brought 

 into operation exactly in the same way ; the 

 wing of the share also, admitting of turning; 

 so that every plough has four points and two 

 shares ; and as with every new plough an 

 extra set of points and wings are given, every 

 purchaser receives eight points and four 

 shares. These are contrived so as to fix into 

 a socket, where they are confined by a single 

 bolt in the most secure manner, A person 

 present at the trial informed us, that the 

 plough in use had been constructed at the 

 manufactory at Boston, from a pattern for the 

 beam and handles sent from this part of the 

 country — they are certainly the most perfectly 

 adapted of any that I have ever before seen. 



So soon as this plough had passed, throw- 

 ing over a furrow to the depth of the surface- 

 staple of the soil only, the subsoil plough, 

 invented by Messrs. Prouty, followed in the 

 bottom of the furrow, performing its operation 

 to "a charm." It was drawn by a pair of 

 small horses, and seemed to follow with an 

 ease that astonished us all, pulverizing the 

 subsoil to the depth of a foot if put to it, and 

 leaving it in such a state, that the lad wh» 

 guided it, preferred walking on the land-side 

 of the furrow, rather than to drag his feet 

 ankle-deep in the loosened earth ; in every 

 respect this implement is perfect, and will be 

 the means of augmenting the crops to a pro- 

 fitable extent; opening the subsoil to a depth 

 sufficient to carry off a superabundance of 



