38 How THE FARM PAYS. 



CHAPTER in. 



PLOWING, HARROWING AND CULTIVATING. 



Q. As you and your men, Mr. Crozier, have had almost a monop- 

 oly of the prizes given for plowing offered'by the different fairs in the 

 vicinity of New York within the past ten years, will you please state 

 what kind of a plow you consider the best fitted for general farm 

 work? 



A. I used the Scotch plows up to 1876, and always with the best 

 results, preferring them up to that time to all makes of American 

 plows that I had tried. It was with these plows that we did the work 

 in competition for the prizes offered by the different fairs. All our 

 competitors used plows of American manufacture. At the trial at 

 Mineola, Queens Co., L. I., in 1872, where there was over $300 

 offered in prizes, we had upwards of thirty competitors, all of whom 

 used American plows. In this test every prize offered was taken by 

 us with the Scotch plow. 



Q. Are Scotch plows in anything like general use amongst the 

 farmers in the United States? 



A. No. I have imported about fifty plows for different farmers. 

 I think that is about all there are in use. 



Q. If they have shown such superiority as at the fair at Mineola, 

 how do you account for their not being more generally in use ? 



A. One objection is their cost, and their great weight also is an 

 objection against them among those unaccustomed to handling them. 

 Q. Do you still use the Scotch plow? 



A. No; I use an American steel plow which is made a good deal 

 after the pattern of the Scotch plow, but of lighter weight. I find 

 this plow is more convenient for handling in turning in small fields; 

 but were I operating on long stretches of prairie land I would by all 

 means use the Scotch plow, because there, on long lines, the turning 

 would be no objection, and its advantage is that in laying the furrow 

 in a clean, compact, unbroken strip at an angle of about forty-five 

 degrees, thus turning the sod completely down, the sod decomposes 

 much better than if portions of it were irregularly turned and broken 

 into fragments, as is the case, less or more, with the usual American 

 plow, with its bulging mold-board. The great improvement made in 

 American plows since 1876, in the shape of the mold-boards, is 



