60 AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 



dirty. On thin open soils the extra wide furrow is, 

 perhaps, the best for general purposes. The rich mould is 

 retained on the surface, and depth can be obtained by 

 running a subsoil plough or grubber in the furrow 

 immediately after the plough. Enormous crops of potatoes 

 are grown in rich sod-land by adopting; this plan. The 

 furrows may be drawn 10 x 3, 11 x 4, or* 14 x 6 inches. 

 The mould-board must be wide and short for this work, 

 and the ground is gone over very rapidly; one and a-half 

 acre per day being nothing unusual for a good man with 

 team. The furrow is turned completely bottom up, and 

 the thick growth of weeds common on rich semi-tropical 

 soils, are buried and soon rot. Nothing short of inversion 

 will serve them, as their vitality is strong, and they will 

 live again if anything like a chance is allowed them. 



A Day's Work Ploughing. While cutting a furrow 

 9in. wide the ploughman walks about 11 miles while he is 

 turning over an acre a fair day's work. That is, without 

 reckoning the journey from the stable to the field and 

 back again. It is one of the advantages of long furrows 

 that the time occupied in turning at the ends is so much 

 less than on shorter stretches. This is worth keeping in 

 view when laying out land for cultivation. In ploughing 

 an acre 352yd. long, cutting a 9in. furrow, the plough goes 

 27 i times round, and turns on the headland 55 times. If 

 we allow 1 min. for turning, the time thus occupied is equal 

 to 55 min, or say an hour's work the hardest of the day, 

 too. This would be in a paddock or field of average 

 length, some 16 chains long. The plough pace, to do good 

 steady work varies from 1 ^ to 2 miles per hour. Applying 

 these figures to the 11 miles walked in ploughing an acre 

 at the rate of 1| miles an hour, takes 7 hours. With a 

 lOin. furrow there is one mile less of walking, which may 

 be reckoned as half an hour to three quarters, according to 

 the estimate of travelling pace. With a lOin. furrow on 

 light land, where the furrows are 352yd. long, from six to 

 seven hours are occupied per acre, at the ordinary pace of 

 two miles per hour. Thus, in making short furrows, with 

 plough, cultivator, or other implement, a great amount of 

 extra work becomes necessary, and time is lost in turning. 



