Practical Questions in Plows and Plowing. 15 T 



The table also shows in a very striking manner how necessary 

 it is that plows should be specially adapted to the soils in which 

 they are intended to work. Thus Hart's plow works the easiest 

 in all soils except the moory soil, in which Ransom's F F excells 

 it by fourteen and one-third per cent, while in the strong loam 

 Hart exceeds Ransom by forty-three and a half per cent, and 

 loamy sand by eight and one-third per cent. Ransom's Rutland 

 excels Furguson's Swing by fifteen per cent in sandy loam, while 

 in strong loams Ferguson excels Ransom by four and a half per 

 cent. This question of the adaptation of plows to different soils 

 and situations has been too much overlooked even by intelligent 

 farmers, and it shows very clearly that the plow for " all kinds 

 of work," which so many of them are looking and longing for, 

 will never be devised by the ingenuity of man. If a farmer 

 desires 'perfect work the plow to accomplish it must be made 

 expressly for the soil and the conditions of the work, and if he 

 uses any other kind he must pay the penalty in a waste of power 

 and an imperfection in the work. 



A series of experiments having for their object an answer to 

 the question we are discussing, was made by Mr. J. C. Morton, and 

 given in his Encyclopedia of Agriculture. The ground was a 

 deep, silicious loam, above the quartoze conglomerate of the old 

 red sandstone formation, and was of a uniform texture. The 

 results of the dynamometer w^ere taken with a self recording 

 arrangement, and every care was taken to obtain perfectly correct 

 results. The size of the furrow was in all cases six inches by 

 nine inches. 



PLOWS. 



Wilkie's 



Barrowman's , . . 



Fergusson's 



Beverstone 



Barrett & Exall's D P. 

 Ransom's one-handled 



Averages . 



Pounds. :Per cent. 



581 

 644 

 560 

 478 

 567 



566 



22 

 35 

 17 

 00 

 18 



18 



In these experiments the same difference appears between the 

 draught of plows in the same soil and with a furrow of the same 

 size, as was disclosed in Mr. Pusey's experiments, but it is not so 

 great in amount, the draught of the heaviest exceeding that of the 



