Practical Questions in Plows and Plowing. 149 

 CHAPTER VII. 



ON SOME OF THE PRACTICAL QUESTIONS IN PLOWS AND PLOWING. 



FULVERIZATION. 



As stated iu our chapter "On the objects to be accomplished 

 by plowing," our convictions are strong that the primary object 

 of the process is to mellow the ground by direct pulverization. 

 We have never seen this stated as desirable in any of the English 

 books or periodicals to which w^e have had access.* They all 

 design to effect the pulverization of the soil mediately by plow- 

 ing, but they always expect to effect it immediately through the 

 harrow. They must first turn over the soil, laying it in sharp and 

 well defined ridges, mathematically parallel to each other. But 

 this darling sharpness of ridge cannot be obtained unless the slice 

 is turned over with the least possible disturbance of the relations 

 of its particles Avith each other; hence a structure which would 

 effectually pulverize the soil and injure the sharpness of the crest 

 would so offend the superstitious prejudices of English plowmen 

 that not one could be sold in any of the markets of the kingdom. 



This superstition was transmitted to America, and until very 

 recently the lines of American plows have been formed on 

 English principles. The importance of thorough pulverization 

 was recognized l)y American farmers at a much earlier period 

 than it was in England; but as they had not thoroughly studied 

 the relations of the lines of the plow to the comminution of the 

 furrow slice, they Avere unable to realize their ideal of perfection 

 in practice. 



Let us suppose a series of sheets of pasteboard to be superim- 

 posed as at A, Fig. 74. It will be seen that the edges, a h, are 

 in a straight line, at right angles to the line c a. If we now press 

 a thumb on cZ, and, with the other hand, raise up the corners of 

 the sheets at h, the edges of the sheets will no longer be in a line 

 at right angles with the line of the upper sheet, but the upper 

 sheets will have advanced beyond the loAver ones. Before the 



♦Perhaps we should except "Talpa" from this remark, but the author of that work 

 did not expect to pulverize the soil by a plow, hut with some instrument which should 

 throw out the earth like a woodchuck. 



