242 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



this country in 1856, or by inventions and devices similar in 

 principle. 



This consists in hauling the ploughs back and forth across 

 the field by a stationary engine placed on one side of the 

 field, which, however, can be moved as occasion requires. 

 On the other side is a movable capstan, around which 

 ropes or chains pass from a drum on the engine ; the ropes are 

 each fastened to the frame containing the gangs of ploughs 

 facing in opposite directions, and which are thus drawn back 

 and forth. This, though successful, is very expensive, 

 and cannot be profitably used on a farm of much less than 

 two hundred acres of arable land. 



So much for ploughing ; but the plough, though hallowed by 

 antiquity, the beginner of all earth cultivation, the chosen and 

 long accepted emblem of agriculture, is essentially imperfect. 



It has helped toward cultivation, but whatever it has done, 

 has been and is accompanied with a radical imperfection, and 

 that is the damage by the compacting of the subsoil, which is 

 pressed and hardened by the sole of the plough in an exact 

 ratio with the weight of the soil lifted by the share, in addi- 

 tion to the force required to effect the cleavage and the 

 weight of the instrument itself. The invention and use of 

 the subsoil plough are standing witnesses against the plough. 

 The plough, as now used, turns up or over the sod or stubble 

 in a more or less complete manner, dependent on the skill 

 of the ploughman, the steadiness of his team, and the various 

 conditions of the land to be worked, to the depth of from 

 three to seven inches, delusively believed by the honest man 

 who stands between the stilts of his plough all day long, 

 watching it heave the furrow slice so nice and smooth, and 

 swelling the rich earth as it hurries along, to be from seven to 

 eleven inches. Other instruments pass over it again and 

 again, to make of the rudely upturned furrow a seed-bed fit 

 for use, which is just what we need and must have for suc- 

 cess ; but they are drawn by teams, tramping, treading and 

 compacting the lightened soil. 



Why should we not have an implement which, propelled 

 by some power, should, acting like the tines of a fork or 

 claws of a rabbit, woodchuck, or a mole, tear up, invert and 

 jmlverize the soil at one operation, acting probably with a 



