PLOUGH AND PLOUGHING. 



In this case, tlie angle of 45° is found 

 to be the most convenient at which 

 the furrow-slices may he laid against 

 one another. The lield will then 

 have the appearance of being laid in 

 small ridges, as in the annexed figure, 



Fig. 15. 



Fig. 17. 



all towards the same side if ploughed 

 with a double mould-board plough, or 

 towards a middle line if a plough with 

 a fixed turn-furrow has been used. 

 To produce this regularity, the end 

 of the turn-furrow is made to press 

 on the slice turned over ; and some 

 ploughmen fix a piece of wood or iron 

 to the end of the turn-furrow, which 

 makes a groove in the furrow-slice 

 at the place where the next one will 

 be laid upon it. This prevents use- 

 less openings between the slices. It 

 adds, no doubt, to the draught, but it 

 makes better and neater work. 



" When tlie seed is to be dibbled 

 on the sward, which is reversed by a < 

 single ploughing, it is necessary that 

 the sod should be completely turned 

 over and laid flat. To do this, and 

 at the same time to bury all the grass, 

 requires the furrows to be very equal 

 and parallel ; so that when a roller 

 has gone over the land, it is perfectly 

 flat, without any interstices between 

 the slices which ar6 turned over. It 

 requires a good ploughman to do this 

 perfectly. 



" When clover ley or old grass is 

 ploughed up, it is difficult to bury all 

 the grass which grows on the edge of 

 the slice ; and if it remains exposed, 

 it will grow and increase, to the detri- 

 ment of the corn. To prevent this, a 

 wing is sometimes added to the side 

 of the coulter, a few inches from the 

 j)oint. It cuts a small horizontal slice 

 off the surface before the sod is turn- 

 ed over, and this falls into the bot- 

 tom of the furrow, and is buried there. 

 The coulter with such a wing is called 

 a skiin-coulter, because it. as it were, 

 skims the surface {Figs. 16 and 17). 

 This instrument may require an ad- 

 .598 



ditional horse to be put to the plough 

 in tenacious soils, but this cannot be 

 avoided. There is no doubt that no 

 more horses should be put to a plough 

 than can do the work ; but whatever 

 be the number required, the work 

 must be done well. There is no sav- 

 ing in doing the work imperfectly. 

 The discussion about the number of 

 horses which should draw a plough 

 might easily be settled, if the nature 

 of the soil were sufficiently taken 

 into consideration. The shape of the 

 plough may make some difTerence, 

 but tlie tenacity of the soil makes a 

 much greater. It is, however, not a 

 little surprising that there should be 

 so little variety in the width of the 

 furrows. It would appear as if there 

 were a law prohibiting furrows less 

 than eight inches wide, or more than 

 ten : a furrow-slice five inches wide 

 and ten deep requires no more pow- 

 er than one ten inches wide and five 

 deep. It is true that a plough will 

 not do more than half an acre at most 

 in a day with narrow furrows ; but, 

 if two horses will do this, and two 

 ploughs instead of one be used, with 

 one man and two horses each, an 

 acre will be ploughed in a day with 

 four horses and two men, which is 

 the number usually employed when 

 the furrows are deep and nine or ten 

 inches wide ; but the land will be 

 much better stirred, and laid more 

 even. The Romans ploughed with 

 deep, narrow furrows, and varied the 

 width purposely, the better to pulver- 

 ize the soil. The plough need not be 

 narrower for this work ; for if the 

 first furrow be made wide enough, 

 the plough can deepen it by a second 



