PLOUGHS AND PLOUGHING. 67 



heavy soils a still greater number are sometimes 

 made use of. Thus, in the Vale of Gloucester, sev- 

 en horses may be seen attached to one plough. Not- 

 withstanding this excess of horses, the furrow is 

 seldom above four inches deep on light, and six inch- 

 es on heavy soils, nor is there generally more than 

 three fourths of an acre ploughed in a day. Of course, 

 Avhere there are more than three horses, a driver as 

 well as ploughman is necessary. The horses are 

 almost invariably yoked in line ; so that, when the 

 fields are small, and the turnings consequently nu- 

 merous, most part of the work is done by two, or, 

 rather, by one horse." The Duke of Bedford at- 

 tempted to introduce ploughing with the teams 

 abreast, as practised in this country, and arranged 

 the horses for this purpose with his own hands ; but 

 the ploughman could not, for a long time, be induced 

 to adopt the improvement, preferring to use three, 

 or even five in a string to two or four in pairs. 



The difference in the amount of products between 

 land thoroughly tilled and that which has only un- 

 dergone an apology for tillage, must, at times, have 

 arrested the attention of the most careless farmer. 

 Land adequately manured, deeply and finely plough- 

 ed, and properly seeded, can alone be relied on as a 

 source of profit to the cultivator ; yet how few are 

 the farms around us where these indispensable re- 

 quisites are carried out to their full and proper ex- 

 tent. The earth is barely skimmed in ploughing; 

 what sailors call a wide birth is given to the stones 

 and stumps ; the seed is put on unequally and spa- 

 ringly, and then the farmer aff"ects to wonder his 

 crop is no better. We do not conduct our business 

 as we know it should be done ; we undertake more 

 than can be performed well ; our manure is not ap- 

 plied to the proper crops ; and in these various ways 

 nearly one half our labour may be said to be lost. 



The garden is that part of the farm where the ef- 

 fects of thorough ploughing and manuring are the 



