j>8o O/.Ploughs. Chap. XVIII, 



The Difference betwixt the Operation of the Spade, 

 &nd that of the common Plough, is only this -, that 

 the former commonly divides the Soil into fmaller 

 Pieces, and goes deeper. 



How eafy and natural it is to contrive a Flough 

 that may equal the Spade, if not exceed it, in going 

 deeper, and cutting the Soil into fmaller Pieces, than 

 the Spade commonly does, I leave to the judgment 

 of thofe who have feen the Four-coulter'd Plough. 



The Plough defcrib'd by Virgil had no Coulter 3 

 Neither do 1 remember to have feen any Coulter in 

 Italy, or the South of France-, and, as I have been 

 informed, the Ploughs in Greece, and all the Eaft, 

 are of much the fame Fafnion : Neither is it practi- 

 cable to ufe a Coulter in fuch a Plough 5 becaufe the 

 Share does not cut the Bottom of the Furrow hori- 

 zontally, but obliquely ; in going one way, it turns 

 off the Furrow to the right Hand -, but in coming 

 back, it turns it to the Left {a). Therefore, if it 

 had a Coulter, it muff have been on the wrong Side 

 every other Furrow : And befides, as the Handle 

 (for it has but one) always holds the Plough towards 

 one Side, with the Bottom of the Share towards the 

 Unplow'd Land, it would caufe the Coulter to go 

 much too low when it went on the Furrow-fide, and 

 it would not touch the Ground, when it went on the 

 Land-fide. 



'Tis a great Miftake in thofe who fay Virgil's 

 Plough had Two Earth-boards ; for it had none at 

 all; but the Share itfelf always going obliquely, ferved 

 inftead of an Earth-board •, and the Two Ears, which 

 were the Corners of a Piece of Wood lying under 



[a) Note, This EnJIern Plough always goes forward, and re- 

 turns back in the fame Furrow, making only one Land of a 

 whole Field : Thouch it turns its one Furrow towards the Right, 

 and the other towards the Left of the Holder; yet every Furrow 

 13 turned towards the fame Point of the Compafs, as when we 

 toiow with a Turn-wriit Plough. 



the 



