1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



467 



For the New England Farmer. 

 PLOW DEEP TILLER, NO. 77, AND 

 DEEP PLOWING. 



Mr. Brown :— I was well pleased with your 

 comments in the July Farmer upon the great plow, 

 No. 77, and its performances at Lowell and Ips- 

 wich. Probably for deep and difficult work, this 

 plow stands unrivalled as the king among plows. 

 The enterprising manufiicturers merit the thanks 

 of the farming public for the introduction of the 

 Deep Tiller — a plow, in my opinion, calculated to 

 add much to the productive value of land in cer- 

 tain cases, such as where recently-drained bogs 

 and swales are to be broken up and made subject 

 to refined cultivation, or where tamer lands are 

 ready for (Jeep tillage. Plows are plenty enough 

 that will lay furrows six or seven inches deep, 

 about as well as it will probably ever be done ; 

 but those of us who wish for deeper plowing, know 

 well the vexation attending our attempts to prac- 

 tice it — particularly if the land be difficult sod — 

 with the plows we can generally procure. For the 

 benefit of those farmers who favor deep tillage, 

 but have not an instrument to effect it with that 

 suits them, I will now particularly describe this 

 plow and its work. 



Deep Tiller, No. 77, is bold and grand in its 

 outlines, and yet shows you at a glance that the 

 artist's " line of beauty " is pleasing and graceful 

 in the plow, as well as in works of art and taste, 

 strictly so called — that the beautiful and the use- 

 ful may be combined in our agricultural imple- 

 ments. This plow is equal to the overturning of 

 furrow slices 12 inches deep by 18 to 20 inches 

 wide, in the most difficult soils, where the sod is 

 composed of the roots of brakes, water grasses, 

 and other wild herbage. Its range of excellent 

 practical work may be stated at from 8 to 13 

 inches deep by IG to 20 inches wide, though per- 

 haps its very best work is 10 to 12 by 17 to 18 

 inches. 



The mould-board, moderately concave, is con- 

 structed upon accurate mathematical principles, 

 and has an equality of curvature and harmony of 

 proportions throughout, a combination of curved 

 lines and planes, which present an equal bearing 

 against the furrow slice, so that the entire work- 

 ing face of the mould scours bright, and takes a 

 high polish in any soil. When my Deep Tiller 

 came to me new from the flxctory, the mould was 

 coated with blue varnish ; and when put at work, 

 I noticed that the varnish was entirely scoured off 

 the third round in plowing. The mould-board 

 so effectually twists its furrow-slice as to mellow 

 and disintegrate the overturning earth, breaking 

 open any undue cohesion of parts, while the same 

 is so equally done as to leave the plowed land 

 lying even and regular, and in a fit condition for 

 the raising of a fine deep tilth. 



The share and forepart of the mould, attenuated 

 and gently rising, form an easy wedge to enter the 

 ground and separate the slice on the under side 

 from the unplowed land, and to present the slice 

 to the twist or curvature of the mould-board with 

 so little friction, that a great work may be done 

 by the plow without the necessity of employing an 

 inconvenient amount of team ; and it proves in 

 practice that four good oxen will work the plow in 

 yielding easy soils, or sis in those that are stiff or 



t>oggy. 



The length of the mould-board, measured in a 

 straight line from the upper corner of the wing in 

 the rear to the point of the share, is 4 feet and 4 

 inches. The extreme width of. the mould, meas- 

 ured at its upper corner in the rear and at right 

 angles to the plane of the landside, is 25 inches, 

 and its height at that point is 18 inches. The 

 length of land side is 3 feet. The height of the 

 standard, or from the ground to the under side of 

 the beam where it is bolted to the mould, is 19 1-2 

 inches, which enables the plow to swim clear 

 through tall grass or other clogging substances. 

 The length of the beam, from the standard bolt to 

 the fore end, is 4 feet ; and the height at the under 

 side of the end of the beam is ID inches ; which 

 enables one to adjust the line of draught so that 

 the team may be brought near the working or 

 body parts of the plow. The length from the 

 standard bolt back to the end of the left or beam 

 handle, measured in a straight line, is 5 feet, 

 which gives the plowman a long handle, aad pow- 

 erful leverage for the control of the great plow in 

 its great work. Then, too, the various parts of 

 the plow are made of selected material, of a qual- 

 ity combining lightness with adequate strength, 

 in order to dispense with all superfluous weight, 

 and adapt the instrument to the control of plow- 

 men of "fair to middling" size and muscular 

 power. A large light wheel is attached to the 

 land side of the fore end of the beam, and is set 

 pretty well off to land, so as to operate as a brace 

 to neutralise any undue side- pressure of a great 

 slice, when plowing stubborn bog or swale spd, 

 and to facilitate the plowman's labors in keeping 

 a true course through such land. The_ plow is 

 rigged with a draft rod and quadrant clevis — very 

 strong adjustments, and affording the means by 

 which the plowman may guage the plow to any 

 desirable depth and width of work, and have the 

 line of draught such as tg give the instrument a 

 level run on its sole-bearings. 



There is one result produced by the Deep Tiller, 

 which I do not know as I can describe intelligibly, 

 but I will try. The plow, in the act of twisting 

 and inverting its deep slice, mellows it very much ; 

 and a portion of those parts that are not held 

 together by the roots of the sward, roll down into 

 the channel, forming a slanting side to the invert- 

 ed slice ; upon this inclined base the next slice is 

 deposited, and so on — the edges of the inverted 

 slices, from the top down, say halfway, or as far 

 as they are preserved entire by the roots of the 

 sod, being matched in side by side ; so that while 

 the sod is buried sufficiently to be out of the way 

 in after-cultivation of the plowed land, and to 

 smother and kill the vegetation attached to it, the 

 surface soil is not turned entirely to the bottom, 

 but is mixed in layers with the under soil — a part 

 of the latter being below, and the rest above the 

 surface soil. This is regarded as an excellent re- 

 sult, especially where one wishes to deepen his 

 plowing, and to improve the subsoil ; but does not 

 want too thick a layer of it on the surface at a 

 time, if it be quite unfertile. 



I would like to show you, friend Brown, a field 

 of nine or ten acres of recently drained swale land, 

 which was broken up a foot olep with this plow 

 last November, and from which a crop is aow 

 being harvested. The land is a part pf a low 

 meadow, — not of peaty soil, but a stiff, heavy 

 loam, approaching in texture to clay, — subject to 



