332 [Assembly 



and contracted to correspond with the width of the intervals. Behind 

 the sock and in the handles, are inserted tines or teeth, not unlike 

 those of a break harrow, which stir the earth and cut up all nox- 

 ious annuals when the plow is in motion, which lie or grow beyond 

 the range of the sock or share, and the whole intermediate space is 

 well stirred and hoed by the combined action of its sock and 

 harrow tteth. 



With this instrument a man and one horse will do much work, and 

 also do it well ; and it is a decisive and unquestionable improvement 

 in the modern system of agriculture. Correct plowing is the first 

 and great lesson taught to and improved upon by the farmer, and the 

 more perfect the instrument, the more perfect the work can be done. 

 The very handling of the tool, independent of all view of its excel- 

 lence, is of immense importance. It compels him to draw his fur- 

 rows in straight lines, and to deepen his plowing. These two cir- 

 cumstances lie more at the bottom of good husbandry than is generally 

 imagined. Some are erroneously of opinion that if they apply to 

 land a good dressing of dung, they have done all for vegetation that 

 can be effected. No theory can be more untrue and injurious. The 

 soil that is properly opened by tillage, and frequently stirred by sub- 

 sequent hoeing, will yield more abundantly than that which though 

 rich in manure, is carelessly and imperfectly wrought; as much, and 

 perhaps more depends upon the operations of the plow, than on the 

 contents of the barn yard. This belief has had a mighty influence 

 in the rapid strides which the art for the last sixty years has taken 

 in Europe. Pulverizing the earth and deepening the bed, that the 

 most delicate fibre may easily penetrate it, as well downward as in 

 a horizontal direction, is the great object of plowing and hoeing. 

 For this reason a garden is generally more productive than a field, 

 because the deep thorough digging, and breaking of all clods and 

 lumps into minute particles, by the spade, and the frequent hand 

 hoeing afterwards, enables the roots to stretch to a greater distance 

 every way, and supply themselves with a more various and abundant 

 aliment. 



No doubt the first conception of the horse-hoe and several of the 

 improved models of the plow, was suggested and borrowed from the 

 abvious and acknowledged benefits of the same operations on culinary 

 vegetables. These hand tools, the spade and hoe, will answer on a 

 limited space like a garden, but when we come in a field of m^ny 

 acres we want something which will move more rapidly, that will 

 save labor, time and expense, and do the work as effectually, or 



