546 Transactions of the American Institute. 



On stubble or unsodded ground, thorough mellowing or com- 

 minution and commingling, as well as tui-ning up an unexposed 

 surface to the atmosphere, must be regarded as an important point 

 in the operation. 



The advantages of thorough disintegi'ation and intimate com- 

 mingling, as it can be done by skillful operators with the spade, in 

 comparison with the best work that is done with the ordinary 

 plow, harrow and cultivators, were clearly set forth in a prize essay 

 many years ago in Scotland. The trials were made on hundreds of 

 acres, and seemed to demonstrate the fact that it was profitable ia 

 that country to employ the spade instead of the plow, from the 

 increase of crop and diminution in the need of manure, consequent 

 upon thoroughness of working. Eecent statements of the results 

 of extensive operations by Alderman Mecchi, are to the same effect. 

 Innumerable experiments show clearly the advantage in produc- 

 tiveness of spade labor over that of the plow per acre, but whether, 

 on the whole, more profitable at, European rate of wages, remains 

 unsettled. 



The question now arises: What is the best kind of plow for ful- 

 filling any or all of these indications? And the answer will be in 

 general terms, like the following: The one that performs the work 

 required in the best and most uniform manner, with the least 

 expenditure of draft, maintaining the most stead}^ movement with 

 the greatest ease in management by the plowman, being easily 

 portable, and not disposed to break or soon wear out. 



Lightness of draft and thoroughness of disintegiation, or mel- 

 lowing, must always, to some extent, stand in opposition to each 

 other. Plows of lightest draft must always be those that move 

 the soil in mass, or wholeness of furrow slice, with the least interior 

 disturbance or breaking to pieces. Breaking or comminution must 

 always require power in addition to that for turning. 



Lightness of draft depends upon length and " easiness of lines " — 

 that is, comparative smallness of angles between them and the 

 direct line of motion of the plow. 



A simple rule for the construction of plows, that admits of almost 

 universal application, except for those designed to work in the 

 most adhesive clay soils, was published by the Rev. W. L. liham, 

 in his Dictionary of the Farm, and was adopted as a theory of 

 construction by the Messrs. Ransome, of Ipswich, England, about 

 forty years ago. Briefly stated, it is " that the linos in the direction 

 of the motion of the plow be always straight, with constantly 



