No. 5. 



Cast Iron Phna^h. 



163 



Fig. 27. 



Prouty and Ifffears's Cast Iron Plong^h. 



Improvement in the Plough is a subject of more importance to the agricultural com- 

 munity, perhaps, than any other. The objects desirable to be obtained are superiority of 

 work', saving to the farmers in time, in repairs, in power of draught, and in the rapidity 

 of performing work. A plough should be strong, durable, cheap, and work easy. We 

 have heard with great pleasure a suggestion that it is the intention of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society to appoint a committee, who shall institute enquiries as to the value 

 of the various ploughs now in use, and to suggest improvements which in their opinion will 

 be valuable. Such an enquiry will be of invaluable advantage not only to the farmers of 

 Massachusetts, but throughoui the United States. There are men connected with that 

 Societ}^ who are weli qualified for the task, and will perform it faithfully and thoroughly. 



Through all the various improvements and alterations which have been made in the 

 construction of the plough, the uniform practice has been to raise or set the landside on a 

 right angle to, or perpendicular with, the plane of the base, over which the beam has been 

 placed on an acute angle with the line of the landside, carrying the forward end towards 

 the furrow about three inches from a continued line of the landside, to incline the plough 

 to land, or retain its proper width of furrow. The effect has been an irregular, unsteady, 

 struggling motion, which effect is increased as the plough is shortened, and the furrow- 

 slice, being cut and raised with a square edge, is very liable, as it falls over, to rest upon 

 the furrow last turned and not shut in level. Ploughs made of cast iron are necessarily 

 shorter than when made of wood or sheet iron, to prevent their being too heavy and cum- 

 bersome, and late improvements in agriculture and the practical use and good effects of 

 tilling the ground with short cast iron ploughs, having brought them into general use, the 

 necessity of adopting some principle, if possible, to the plough to run more uniformly 

 level and steady, and at the same time to form the furrow-slice into such shape as to en- 

 sure its closing and shutting in level, has been seriously felt. 



The principle adopted by Prouty and Mears in the construction of their plough, is to set 

 the landside on an acute angle with the plane of the base, so that the beam is laid on a 

 line parallel to, and continuous with, the line of the landside, and so far over the furrow 

 as to give the plough q sufficient inclination to land, thus causing a straight forward and 

 uniform motion, and the furrow-slice being cut in the form of an oblique-angled parallelo- 

 gram — nr a hoard tcith feather edi^es — falls in and shuts more readily and uniformly with 

 the furrow last turned, leaving the land when ploughed in the best form for the after till- 

 age, and by covering all stubble and green crop completely under, and leaving the surface 

 level, light and friable, fits it for the production of good crops, requiring less strength of 

 team to draw tlie ploucrh, and less efTort of the ploughman to govern it. 



The head or top of the landside being broad, and transversely parallel with the head 

 of 'the base and extended back from the bolt which fastens the beam, so as to make a 

 jbearing for the beam to rest upon, serves as a guide for the workmen to lay the beam by, 



