20 NOTES. - 



the importation of oats ought to be prohibited, as barley would answer as well, 

 and its sale ought to be promoted. 



146 Wiltshire Report, p. 152. It may thence be asserted with justice, that 

 the benefit the Wiltshire farmers derive from their excellent markets, are not 

 commensurate with the expense of maintaining these fine horses, to carry the 

 grain they sell to them. 



147 Coventry's Discourses, p. 47. It is remarked by an intelligent author 

 on matters of husbandry, that a great diversity of implements, as they are more 

 rarely used, prove in general a source of vexation and disappointment, rather 

 than of satisfaction to the farmer. The operations of husbandry cannot be per- 

 formed by them properly, unless the person who is to use such implements, has 

 obtained that facility in the use of them, which continued practice can alone in- 

 sure. Andersons Recreations, vol. iv. p. 47. 



148 Kent's Report of Norfolk, p. 121. 



149 Essex Report, vol. i. p. 128. It is disputed, whether the swing or the 

 wheel plough is least liable to friction. The additional action of the wheels, 

 must certainly occasion more friction ; but, on the other hand, it is contended, 

 that as a plough must have a tendency to go a certain depth, the pressure is re- 

 lieved, and the draught is lightened, by having wheels in front. That objec- 

 tion is now completely obviated, by Wilkie'splan of having a small wheel un- 

 der the sole of th^ plough. 



150 Middlesex Report, p. 89. 



151 Middlesex Report, p. 86. An engraving of the improved swing plough, 

 and an explanation of the principles on which it ought to be constructed, will be 

 found in the Appendix. 



152 The practicability of ploughing strong clay soils, at all seasons of the 

 year, with a pair of horses, is much doubted by Mr Lawrence, an experienced 

 agriculturist, in a communication sent by him to the Farmer's Journal, in June 

 1831. He contends that there are clays, which no two-horse plough, however 

 powerful the cattle, or scientifically constructed the implements, would be able 

 to stir to advantage. He admits, at the same time, that real and considerable 

 improvements have been effected in ploughs and shares, by the inventive and in- 

 genious heads of the mechanists of the North; and he laments that he has never 

 enjoyed an opportunity of examining the soils of Scotland, or of visiting that 

 "great modern storehouse of human intellect.'' 



153 Hertfordshire Report, p. 36; Surrey Report, p. 128, 129. 



154 This is certainly an advantage in ploughing up clover leys, or lands where 

 sheep have been fed on turnips, where a furrow-slice of a regular depth, is particu- 

 lajly desirable. 



155 Middlesex Report, p. 89. To oblige the ploughman to walk upright, 

 and to carry his own weight, the Norfolk and Suffolk ploughs, have but one 

 handle, which soon tires the hand of the man who presses upon it. Ditto. 



156 Surrey Report, p. 123. 157 Wilts Report, p. 68. 



158 Middlesex Report, p. 92. 



159 Lord Somerville's Paper, in the Communications to the Board of Agri- 

 culture, vol. ii. p. 418. In the papers of the Bath Society, vol. x. p. 82, there 

 is an account by the late John Billingsley, Esq. of 385 acres being ploughed 

 in eleven months by a team of six oxen, a ploughman, and driver, by a double- 

 furrowed plough. They also harrowed at the same time 291 acres. 



160 Surrey Report, p. 123. 



161 Huntingdonshire Report, p. 32. In some cases, instead of the sheath, 

 they make use of a slice, as it is called, a sort of knife, difficult to describe, but 

 calculated to effect the paring of a very tough dry surface. 



162 Subjoined to the Select Transactions of the Society of Improvers in 

 Scotland, printed in January 1 743, is this advertisement : " The Rotherham 

 plough, the drill plough, and the horse-hoeing plough, are better made by Mr 

 Dalziel, at Newliston, near Lord Stair's house in West Lothian, than by any 



