Annual Cultivation of the Soil, 217 



plow of the Comte de la Loyere. Nevertheless, the 

 greater simplicity of the Messager plow, the possibility 

 of having it repaired anywhere, and the more moderate 

 price, seem to us to entitle it to the preference. 



If these plowings were to be performed in vineyards 

 where the rows are alternately twenty-four and forty 

 inches apart [Fig. 17], as we have before explained, for 

 the purpose of setting ten thousand plants to the acre, 

 the cost would be rather more ; for, the plow, in such 

 a case, could only be used over two-thirds of the sur- 

 face. The two plowings, to that extent, will cost sev- 

 enty-five cents. To this we shall have to add the 

 working by hand, over one-third of the acre, the cost 

 of which, at six dollars and seventy-five cents per acre, 

 will be two dollars and twenty-five cents, which will 

 make a total expenditure of three dollars, instead of two 

 dollars and fifty-six cents — the cost when the plow alone 

 is employed. 



[These implements show a great improvement upon the 

 antiquated tools of the days of the Romans, but we are vain 

 enough to think that the inventive genius of our countrymen 

 has furnished us with much better machines than any of these 

 which are so highly lauded by Mr. Du Breuil. The superi- 

 ority of the American earth-workers, of various kinds, consists 

 in their greater lightness, strength and finish, as well as their 

 perfect adaptation to the particular office they are intended 

 to perform, whether this be simply stirring the soil, or revers- 

 ing it as in common plowing. For this latter purpose no- 

 thing can exceed the common bar-share plow, with a steel 

 mold-board. 



Though, when closely studied, and considered in a strictly 

 mechanical sense, the turning-plow is a very unphilosophical 

 19 



