Ploughing 1 1 



which the furrows fall. A left-hand plough 

 thus puts the broken ground to the left. With 

 a triple team drawing it, the leader — the 

 left-hand horse — walks in the clean fur- 

 row, the other two animals upon firm un- 

 broken ground. Another advantage of the 

 left-hand plough is that it leaves no dead 

 furrows for winter rains to turn into gulleys 

 or miry spots, and a still greater one that in 

 the ploughing there are no corners to be 

 turned. At a corner the ploughman needs 

 must lift out his plough and set the share afresh 

 in earth — a heartbreaking and back-break- 

 ing job with a big Number 40, — the best 

 size for heavy fallowing. At starting the left- 

 hand plough runs back and forth in the middle 

 of the land, throwing furrow to furrow, and 

 stopping half the land's breadth from the ends. 

 The plough is lifted out and reset at the begin- 

 ning of each furrow, until there are half a dozen 

 or so. Then the ploughman drives all around 

 the broken strip, taking his plough out only 

 when it needs must be unclogged. The land, 

 first a long narrow oval, grows and spreads 

 until it touches either the field-edges or the 

 border of another land. There will be small 

 triangles unbroken at the corners. These are 

 finished with lighter ploughs, generally right- 

 hand ones. After a land is well begun two 

 ploughs or even three may run in it, each keep- 



