THE CHOICE OF PLOWS 185 



while horses can be bought, it is often impossible to hire men 

 at any price.'* 



The more vigorous native labor has been drawn from the 

 fields to the factories, and its place taken by immigrants, who 

 are not accustomed to handling large teams or machinery. 

 While the scarcity of labor is deplored on every hand, to a 

 Western farmer the waste involved in the use of one or even 

 two men with a one-horse plow or cultivator is appalling. In 

 most cases the returns from the soil are sufficient to justify 

 the purchase of better equipment, especially when a change 

 in the system of management would provide larger income. 



The best New England farmer wants deep plowing and 

 effective pulverization, with the furrows completely inverted; 

 hence the jointer is popular. Under the conditions just enum- 

 erated, it is evident that the majority of plows are small and 

 cheap. They are made of cast iron, without riding attach- 

 ments. Where cast iron will not scour, the chilled steel plow 

 is used because of the extreme wear among the sandy soils 

 and loose rocks. On truck farms of the kitchen garden type 

 the small one-horse plow turning a furrow five or six inches in 

 width is used, this being the one general use of the single mold- 

 board plow. Furrows larger than twelve inches are uncommon. 

 Owing to the steep grades, which make it impossible to turn a 

 furrow up hill, practically all walking plows are of the hillside 

 or swivel type. This plow has a reversible bottom, the point 

 acting alternately as shin and share, and the moldboard being 

 so shaped as to turn the furrow in either direction. In the 

 hands of a man who knows how to run it, the hillside plow will 

 do good work, but even the manufacturers confess their in- 

 ability to make the plow do as efficient work as the single 

 moldboard. 



To some extent, riding plows are taking the place of hill- 

 side plows. These are invariably equipped with both right 

 and left hand bottoms, which work alternately, so that the 

 furrows are all turned one way. In certain areas, such as 



