176 Report on Trials of Plows. 



Fourth — It is more simple in its construction and less in cost. 



Fifth — It can be used across ridges, and under a much greater 

 variety of circumstances than the wheel plow. 



Sixth — It requires less power. 



The advocates of wheel plows claim the following advantages 

 for their favorite implement: 



Fi7'st — The plowing can be effected with more ease to the 

 plowman. 



Second — The work can be performed with much greater accu- 

 racy; the depth is more uniform and the sole is kept more level. 



Third — Where very shallow or very deep plowing is required 

 it can be better done with a wheel than with a skim plow, and 

 also where the land is hard and stony. 



Let us briefly consider these conflicting allegations: 



First — It is doubtless true that a swing plow requires a more 

 skillful plowman than a wheel plow, but this, in a country where 

 skilled plowmen are so rare as they are in this, is an objection 

 rather than an advantage. No one denies that a poor workman 

 can do very much better work with a wheel plow than with a 

 swing plow, and this, in our judgment, settles this point in their 

 favor. 



Second — The alleged capacity for adjustment is true, but it is 

 equally true of the wheel plow. 



Third — This allegation must also be admitted, but it is done 

 at a great expense of friction upon the team, and of great labor to 

 the plowman, which increases the wear of the plow. The use of 

 the wheel obviates the necessity of all this, and therefore we 

 think that in this respect wheels have the advantage. 



Fourth — This must be admitted, but the advantage in this 

 respect is so slight that it is scarcely worth taking into the 

 account. 



Fifth — This assertion must be taken with some limitations. In 

 cases where the rock lies at varying depths, sometimes within 

 three or four inches of the surface, at others at a greater depth, 

 in cutting across dead fallows where the surfiice is rough, and 

 hard clods interrupt the even action of the wheels, there can be 

 no doubt that the swing plow would do best. In crossing steep 

 ridges and furrows the action of the ascending wheel raises the 

 share out of the furrow, while in descending it plunges deeper 

 into the ridge. This, however, occurs only in extreme cases, and 



