PLOUGH AND PLOUGHING. 



Fig. 20. 



angle, the first slice being quite cov- 

 ered by the last two. This now 

 forms the crown of the ridge, and 

 the succeeding slices are laid obliijue- 

 ly, leaning to the right and left, tdl 

 the reciuircd width is obtained. An- 

 other land is now begun at the dis- 

 tance of a quarter of a perch from 

 the last furrow, and laid exactly in 

 the same manner. When the two 

 lands meet, the intervening furrow, 

 which had been purposely left shal- 

 lower, is deepened, and there is a 

 furrow between every two lands, the 

 bottom of whicli is considerably be- 

 low the bottom of the other furrows. 

 When this lield is ploughed again af- 

 ter harvest, the work is reversed ; 

 the furrow between the lands is filled 

 with the first slice, and another is 

 placed over this, which now becomes 

 the crown of the land to be formed : 

 this is called ploughing crown and 

 furrow. When the lands are plough- 

 ed towards the crown, it is called 

 gathering. By gathering several 

 limes in succession, the soil is much 

 raised at the crown, at the expense 

 of the sides. This was the old prac- 

 tice, when lands were laid very wide 

 and very high ; in common fields the 

 land or stitch was often the whole 

 width of the possession, from which 

 came the name of land." 



Every practical man will be pre- 

 pared to understand that the longer 

 his furrows are, the less loss is made 

 in turning ; but the amount of this 

 loss is much heavier than will be sup- 

 posed : according to Stephens, it is. 



" One of the most useful opera- 

 tions in ploughing land is to cross the 

 600 



former furrows, by which means the 

 whole soil is much more completely 

 stirred ; and if any part has been left 

 solid without being moved by the 

 ploughshare, which is called a balk, 

 it is now necessarily moved. The 

 leaving of balks is a great fault, 

 and is owing to the sole of the 

 plough being narrower than the fur- 

 row-slice, and the wing of the point 

 too short, or to the ploughman not 

 holding his plough upright. The 

 share should cut the ground to the 

 whole width of the furrow, that no 

 roots of thistles, docks, or other large 

 weeds may escape and grow up again. 

 Many ploughmen hold the plough in 

 an oblique position ; the bottom of the 

 furrow is consequently not level, and 

 the soil is not stirred equally. This 

 is a great fault, especially in wet 

 ground ; for the furrow.s thus become 

 channels, in which the water remains, 

 not being able to run over the in- 

 equalities of the bottom. It is of no 

 use to lay the surface convex if the 

 solid earth below lies in hollows or 

 gutters. The water naturally sinks 

 down into the newly-ploughed land, 

 till it meets the solid bottom which 

 the plough has gone over ; if it can 

 run over this into the deeper furrows 

 between the stitches, it evaporates or 

 runs off, and the land is left dry, and 

 so consolidated as to let the water 

 run along the surface without sink- 

 ing to any deptli ; but if the bottom 

 is uneven, it remains in the hollows, 

 and stagnates there, to the great in- 

 jury of the growing crops. 



" There are various modes of 

 ploughing land when it is intended to 

 pulverize and expose it to the sun in 

 summer, or the frost in winter, to pu- 

 rify and fertilize it. To expose as 

 great a surface as possible, the whole 

 field is laid in high and narrow ridges, 

 bringing to the surface all the fertile 

 portion of the soil, and often, also, a 

 portion of the subsoil, so as to deep- 



