Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 625 



and tlie team hitched to it, with the proper length of traces or chain, 

 if the various parts liave been constructed in accordance with correct 

 mechanical principles the implement will run alone, where there are 

 no obstructions, and maintain its correct position. In a trial at New 

 Haven with one of Mead's conical plows, after having adjusted the 

 traces, clevis, and gauge-wheel, I let the plow run without holding, 

 and those present will testify that we plowed eight times around the 

 land without my touching the handles, except at the ends, when 

 turning around. This fact will show to beginners that if their plow 

 does not glide along easil}'-, like a canoe over the water, it is not 

 properly adjusted, or the parts are not all correctly constructed. 

 When adjusting a common plow for deep work, with a single team, 

 the better way is to cut narrow furrow-slices, letting the implement 

 run at the desired depth, rather than attempt to plow two or three 

 times in the same place to pulverize a foot deep. When a " deep- 

 tiller " plow is adjusted to run a foot in depth, a single team may 

 drav/ it, even in compact land, provided the whiffle-trees or the 

 ox yoke be so short that the plow will run naturally, without any 

 laborious effort of the plowman to keep it erect, and cut a slice four 

 or five inches in breadth. In order to do this the ox yoke must be as. 

 short as it can be and allow the oxen to stand straight, side by side ;: 

 and the whittle-trees should not be more than twenty-two inches in 

 length. When plowhig deep in this manner I have been accustomed 

 to use a double whifiie-tree only twxnty-one inches in length from 

 the middle of one single-tree to the other. By this means, it was. 

 easy to adjust the plow to cut only a very narrow furrow slice. 



" By adjusting a plow to cut only a few inches in width, the pul- 

 verizing will be as complete as by thorough spading. Of course it, 

 will be understood that sod ground cannot be plowed with sucli 

 narrow furrow slices when it is desirable to turn the sod under. 



" Another important consideration is a sharp plow-point with a 

 fin-cutter ; or a sharp coulter may be employed to cut the furrow- 

 slice loose. A sharp coulter correctly adjusted, or a sharp fin-cutter 

 on the plowshare, will often reduce the draught of the plow fi'om- 

 tvv^enty to forty per cent. 



Deep and Shallow Plowing. 



The chairman said that they would now try to finish ofi" this ques- 

 tion. He proceeded to read the many letters on the subject that they 

 had received. 



[Inst.] 40 



