No. 10. 



Centre Draught and Subsoil Ploughs. 



325 



I find, in the New England Farmer, some i 

 interesting remarks on this important subject, 

 which, although they do not exactly coincide 

 with the plan here proposed, are valuable, so 

 far as they go. It would appear an interest- 

 ing question, why should the mechanic arts 

 be supposed to afford the means of leisure to 

 their votaries, while the agriculturist is 

 doomed to •' plod his weary way" for 12 or 13 

 hours in the day without intermission, and 

 under a burning sun. D. 



" The principles of our advice in relation 

 to the speed of the team and hours for work- 

 ing your beasts, are applicable to your own 

 labour and that of your men. We are satis- 

 fied from observation as well as experience, 

 that ten hours per day, in the field, are 

 enough — (the care of the stock to precede 

 and follow.) In ten hours each day, dili- 

 gently improved, most men will accomplish 

 as much work as they can by extending the 

 hours of work beyond that number. In other 

 words, we know of no other farms on which 

 so much labour is accomplished in a season 

 by a given number of hands, as on those 

 where about ten hours per day are spent in 

 the field in vigorous and diligent labour. We 

 know many who work twelve or thirteen 

 hours — but they work more slowly, and do 

 not accomplish a greater amount of work 

 than those who take two hours more for rest. 

 If one is lazy, or if his natural motions are 

 very slow, it may take him more than ten 

 hours to perform a fair day's work : he must 

 make up in time what he lacks in despatch. 

 On all farms, circumstances will occasionally 

 make it desirable to work more hours than 

 wo have named, on some particular days ; but 

 not ordinarily. We go upon the presumption 

 that one is to keep at work — busily and vig- 

 orously at work. Employers often think it 

 for their interest to keep the men as many 

 hours as possible in the field. We doubt the 

 economy of the course. A good labourer 

 knows what a fair day's work is, and is will- 

 ing to perform it. If he knows that when 

 he has done it, he may leave the field, he 

 will accomplish it in ten or eleven hours ; but 

 if he must continue longer than that at his 

 work, he will soon train himself to that 

 slower movement which will prevent the ac- 

 complishment of the "fair day's work" be- 

 fore the hour when he is called from the 

 field. This will be done from necessity 

 rather than from any deliberate purpose." 



For the Fanners' Cabinet. 

 Centre Draught and Subsoil Ploughs. 



Mr. Editor, — I was present at the first 

 trial of the centre draught and subsoil ploughs, 

 at the farm of P. Reybold, jr., and saw them 

 at work on land that had been heavily top- 



dressed with long manure, turning it under, 

 with a view of preparing it for planting with 

 peach trees as a nursery ; and from the per- 

 formance of the centre draught plough in 

 that very rough land, I am induced to ask the 

 favour of you to select me one of each kind, 

 say one centre draught and one subsoil, of 

 large size. The peculiar property of the 

 Prouty plough of undermining the land-side 

 of the furrow, is a very great matter in turn- 

 ing clover or other grass crops for wheat, &c., 

 as the loose earth, so taken up and laid over, 

 completely fills the furrow-seam, which, in 

 our clay-lands, where blue-grass abounds, 

 would, with the ploughs now in use, soon be 

 filled with a luxuriant growth of grass, to the 

 great injury of the growing wheat. Tiie 

 subsoil plough will, I think, be of great ad- 

 vantage in such land, from its property, with 

 comparatively light force, of loosening the 

 earth to the depth of more than 12 inches, 

 without bringing any part of it to the surface. 

 You will please send the ploughs for me by 

 Hand's line, to the care of Mr. Karsner, Che- 

 sapeake city, who is keeper of the locks at 

 that place, Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. 

 I have a few acres of old timothy sward, that 

 is now heavily top-dressed with long manure 

 from the barn-yard, which I wish to put in 

 corn and potatoes, and I want the centre 

 draught for turning in the manure, and the 

 subsoil for its particular province ; and if I 

 get those ploughs in time, say next week, and 

 they should do their work well, of which I 

 have no doubt, I should like to have them, 

 with others, tried at the next quarterly meet- 

 ing of our agricultural society, which takes 

 place at Port Penn, early in June next. 



I think, with yourself, that ploughing- 

 matches at such meetings would be produc- 

 tive of much good, as the farmers would have 

 an opportunity of comparing notes upon mat- 

 ters in general, and particularly on the most 

 certain and accessible means of improving 

 their soil, as also, of the most profitable mode 

 of employing it ; besides which, our mechan- 

 ics, of which we have a number, excellent 

 workmen, in this neighbourhood, would have 

 a chance of showing ofl^, in their ploughs and 

 other implements, their skill and industry. 

 And again, I am much in favour of our young 

 men, our sons and our hired helps also, at- 

 tending ; they would generally be the plough- 

 men in such cases, and the good effect it 

 would have would be felt at home, in the ad- 

 ditional care they would take of their teams, 

 and in perfecting themselves for such plea- 

 surable feats, long before the day of trial, 

 and without which amusements, if I may so 

 call them, our young men would hardly think 

 them worth attending — neither does your 

 friend, J. Jones. 



Wheatland, Newcastle Co. Del. 



