Supplementary Plow Trials. 273 



unablo to m:ike it take such a furrow; his utmost efforts couhl not 

 force it more thau eight inches into the ground, nor could it take 

 a furrow wider than twelve inches. More than two hours Avere 

 spent in trying to make it swim freely in the desired furrow, but 

 without success, although Gov. Holbrook and Mr. Nourse, both 

 eminent masters of the art of plowing, exerted all the resources 

 of their skill to make it work. We all knew that the plow would 

 work admirably in such a furrow, for Ave had seen it do it again 

 and again. We broke off our Avork for dinner, quite in despair 

 of being able to accomplish what we designed to do with that 

 ploAv. While sitting at dinner, it occurred to Mr. Nourse that 

 the difficulty might lie in the beam. Accordingly, on reassembling 

 in the field, after dinner, aa^c found that the Avorkman had care- 

 lessly set the beam out of its true direction, so that it turned from 

 land and out of the ground to such an extent that the clevis could 

 not afford vertical or lateral motion enough to correct it. These, 

 tendencies were then counteracted by an opposite adjustment of 

 the coulter to make it take more land, and by hooking the chain 

 into the Avheel guards to make it run deeper. We then had no 

 difficulty in performing the experiments from the fifteenth to the 

 thirty-seventh Avith relative correctness, although the absolute 

 draught was undoubtedly considerably greater thau it Avould haA'^e 

 been had the beam been in its right place. 



3. The importance of skill in the 2>lowman ims also very clearly 

 manifested. This skill is desirable to hold the ploAv to advantage. 

 Delicacy and sensitiveness of touch are almost as much required 

 in ploAving as in line engraving. The ploAV manifests its inten- 

 tion to go astray to the sympathetic ploAvman before it actually 

 does so; a very slight, an almost inappreciable counter resistance 

 on his part, promptl3' applied, will check the Abolition of the ploAv 

 before it is manifested in action, but if the goldeu moment is lost, 

 it is gone forever. The volition is manifest in action, and an 

 unsightly alteration in the size of the furrow slice reveals the 

 ploAvman's awkAvardness to CA'^ery spectator. But the skill of the 

 ploAvman is not alone manifested in his manner of holding; it is 

 even more clearly shoAvn in his mode of tempering the ploAv. A 

 good ploAvman is never satisfied until his plow SAvims absolutely 

 free; he will not use any more of his own strength than is really 

 necessary, knowing as he does that, as his force is exerted through 

 levers, every pound of exertion which he uses reacts on the horses 

 with a tenfold force. He will, therefore, alter his adjustments, 



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