WEST DEVONSHIRE. 139 



fallow of three or four plowings, overihaded 

 with fern a foot high, before the turnep 

 plants were fit for the hoe. 



Another caufe of imperfect tillage, in 

 this Diftric!^, is the unreclaimed ftate 

 in which much of its arable lands remain, 

 with refoed: to larp-e flones, and rocky 

 obflrudions of the plow; and which want 

 nothing but fpirit and induftry to remove 

 them ', fo as to give an even and fufficient 

 depth of furrow. 



The Devonfhir^ Plowmen, however, 

 have hit upon a much eafier way of faving^' 

 their plows from deilrudiion and them-, 

 feives from injury, than that of clearing the 

 foil from ftones. Inflead of ufing an iron 

 bolt, to fallen the draught chain to the end 

 of the beam, a wooden pin is fubflituted. 

 When the fliare llrikes againft a ftone, the 

 pin breaks ; and by this fimple contrivance 

 the neck of the plow and the teeth of the 

 Plowman are freed from danger. 



It is probable that, formerly, much has 

 been done towards clearing the 



GROUND FROM OBSTRUCTIONS OF THE 



y^ow; as a very ingepious method of 



freeing 



