26] A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



weights and measures upon this principle was approved and recom- 

 mended, in 1814, by a Committee of the House of Commons. 



Implements of Husbandry. Those in use in this county for 

 draught, are waggons and carts ; for tillage, double and single 

 ploughs,* with and without wheels, scufflers, harrows,f and rollers ; 

 for sowing, drill-ploughs and other drill-machines; and for other pur- 

 poses, thrashing-machines, winnowing ditto, straw-cutting engines, 

 &c. The waggons are either with six-inch wheels, or narrow wheels : 

 the former kept by the larger farmers, in which six horses are drawn 

 double, and convey a load of three tons and a half, or four tons ; 

 the narrow-wheeled waggons are drawn by four, and carry two tons 

 and a half, or three tons. Six-inch wheel carts are mostly used 

 about farm-houses, for conveying dung, repairing roads, materials 

 for hollow draining, &c.; some few narrow-wheeled carts are kept 

 by the small farmers for the road, also one-horse carts, and by 

 gardeners, butchers, and people who supply the markets. The 

 wheel-carriages of this county are well constructed, and not capable 

 perhaps of much improvement : they should be made as light as 

 possible, consistent with sufficient strength, as any superfluous 

 weight in the carriage is so much taken from the load. Double 

 or two-furrow ploughs, are much used, and answer well on light 

 soils, where four horses will plough two acres or more per day. The 

 single-wheel plough is a very good tool, requiring no person to 

 hold or touch it, except when turning at the end of the furrow : 

 they require but one attendant, for which a boy of twelve or four- 

 teen years of age is sufficient. The superiority of a plough that 

 requires no holder but a person only to drive the horses, and turn 

 it in and out at the end of the furrow, to one which requires to be 

 held, and the horses of which are guided by reins, must be evi- 

 dent, unless it can be proved that these latter are of easier draught, 

 and that wheels encumber the movement. 



The wheels have been much improved by the addition of an iron 

 flay, firmly screwed to the coulter, which, in ploughing leys, takes 

 off the turf and turns it into the furrow, where the plough immedi- 

 ately covers it with earth : by this management, a turf at one 



* Swing-ploughs, drawn by two horses a-breast, and guided by the plough- 

 man, chiefly with reins, are in use amongst many of our first-rate agriculturists, 

 who think the strength of two horses so applied equal to that of three when 

 drawing in length. The wheels are considered as adding greatly to the draught. 



t The twin-harrow, for eradicating squitch, an excellent implement, is 

 chiefly confined to the adjoining county of Salop. 



