^Mer 



IGAN HERD-BOO^' 



DEVOTED TO 

 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



Perfect Agriculture is the true foundation of all trade and industry. — Libbiq. 



Vol. XII.— No. 3.] 



10th mo. (October) 15th, 1847. 



[Whole No. 153. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY, 



BY JOSIAH TATUM, 



EDITOR AND PROPUIETOR, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Price one dollar per year.— For conditions see last page. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Plough. 



In a history of the Plough, e.xtracted from 

 the New York Agricultural Transactions, 

 and published in the Cabinet tor August, p. 

 19, I do not consider that justice has been 

 done the subject, inasmuch as no notice 

 whatever is taken of one of the greatest — 

 perhaps the very greatest improvement that 

 has been made in that all-important imple- 

 ment, since its first invention. I allude to 

 the principle of Centre-draught, invented 

 and patented by Prouty & Mears, of Bo.ston, 

 and which still retains its primitive superi- 

 ority; their ploughs having, the last season, 

 taken twenty-three preniiums in competi- 

 tion, in different parts of the country, in- 

 cluding the Philadelphia Society's first pre- 

 mium " for the best plough after trial :" that 

 honourable testimony having been awarded 

 to it five years out of six, and for the last 

 three years in succession. As proof of the 

 importance of this invention, I would ask 

 leave to extract the following sentence from 



Cab.— Vol. XII.— No. 3. 



a late communication by Elias Phinney, Esq., 

 of Lexington, Mass., whose praise, as a prac- 

 tical and scientific tiller of the soil, is in all 

 that part of the country, which may properly 

 be denominated "the Scotland of America." 

 He says : 



*' I have, for twenty-five years past, per- 

 sonally superintended my own estate, part 

 of which I have annually had under the 

 plough. I have tried English, Scotch, and 

 every variety of American ploughs, and pre- 

 sume I shall be excused for saying, that I 

 consider myself a competent judge of their 

 relative value in the hands of farmers. The 

 application of the Centre-draught principle 

 to the plough by Messrs. Prouty & Mears, 

 is unquestionably, the greatest improvement 

 that has been made in the implement since 

 iits first invention ; Mr. Prouty was a practi- 

 jcal farmer and saw the objections to the old 

 fashioned plough; his ingenious mind set 

 [about devising means, whereby the power 

 of draught might be greatly lessened; the 

 liability to wear in certain parts more than 

 jOthers, obviated ; the labour of managing it 

 [greatly diminished, and at the same time 

 doing the work infinitely better; and well 

 ,has he done it. And when his improvement 

 jshall be generally adopted by farmers, and 

 'its merits justly appreciated, Mr. Prouty 

 I will be ranked amongst the greatest bene- 

 I factors of the age." 



I I would observe, the castings of the Prouty 

 & Mears' ploughs, as well as the workman- 

 jship in their construction, cannot be excelled ;. 



C73) 



