REPORTS 



OF THE 



^mtv SCuvicuUutiil Soc(ctj> (n 1825. 



I. ON PLOUGHING. 



The Committee on Ploughing — 



REroRT, That three teams, each of two pairs of oxen, with a 

 driver, and one team of one pair of oxen, entered on the ground 

 with their ploughs. The work of all of them was performed with 

 great steadiness, without hurry, in ploughing each one quarter of 

 an acre, in from 48 to 53 minutes. — Each plough was furnished 

 with a thin roller, or small wheel, under the fore part of the beam, 

 to regulate the depths of the furrows, and three of them with 

 each a circular revolving cutter, fixed under the beam, between 

 the coulter and the roller. The great benefit of the cutters were 

 particularly observable in the actual state of the ground ; it being 

 very sparingly turfed, and much softened by the heavy rain of 

 the prec ceding day. The furrow slices, nevertheless, were 

 straight and smooth at their edges, and turned over with great 

 regularity : whereas the other plough, unprovided with a cutter, 

 was embarrassed with the tufts of grass rising before the coulter 

 and clogging it ; which, besides increasing the labour of the 

 ploughman, produced a degree of roughnes in the surface, and ir- 

 regularities in the furrows. 



The ploughing by Col. Jesse Putnam's team of four oxen was 

 done with distinguished accuracy, in the straightness of the fur- 

 rows, and complete subversion of the soil; and to him the Com- 

 mittee award the first premium, being twenty dollars. 



To Mr. Perley Tapley the Committee award the third pre- 

 mium, being ten dollars; for the ploughing done by his team of 

 feur oxen, in a very handsome manner. 



