1922.] 



Ploughing and Ploughing Matches. 



1087 



suggest improvements to visitors from a - distance.* In 1767. 

 the Society of Arts, which had been founded thirteen years 

 previously, distributed three premiums of £50 for plough inven- 

 tions,! including the skim-coulter plough of Mr. Duckett of 

 Esher, which earned the approbation of Lord John Somerville 

 himself. 



The object of improvement was quite clearly recognised to 

 be better cultivation and reduced expense, and the means to 

 these ends were seen to be better implements and greater skill 

 in using them. The problem could not be better stated than by 

 Arthur Young, in 1797 ; his immediate subject is a ploughing 

 match at Pet worth, but his statement of the case was intended 

 to have general application and is as true to-day as one-and-a- 

 quarter centuries agoj : — 



" There are four distinct species of merit which demand to he appreciated : — 



1. The skill of the ploughman. 



2. The goodness of the plough. 



3. The furrow ploughed. 



4. The power of the team. 



•• The first of these objects is seen in the knowledge with which the plough- 

 man adapts the work to the crop in question, to lay the furrows in such a 

 manner as shall encourage all grass and weeds to vegetate, if (as in fallowing} 

 that is requisite; or. on the contrary, to exclude them from the air as much as 

 possihle, as in turning a clover ley for wheat; as well as to vary his depth and 

 breadth of furrow to the object of the farmer. His skill is also seen in the 

 straightness and evenness of his work; in setting his plough to the nature of 

 the soil, and even to the season, whether moist or dry. All these, and several 

 other points, give an opportunity to a ploughman to shew his skill even with 

 a bad plough; and with the best, a bad ploughman will contrive to make 

 wretched work. . . . 



"The goodness of the plough a most essential point; for there are such 



as no ploughman can make good work with ; and some so heavy 



that there must be four horses to draw it ... . The Kentish turnwrest 

 will .... lay the furrows well; but having a chisel point, of only two, three, 

 or four inches wide, and a heel nine or ten, must in various operations drive 

 over roots and weeds without cutting them. The little Suffolk swing plough 

 is a handy tool for three or four inches of depth, but very deficient for a right 



* cf. Arthur Young's statement of his own method of proceeding: Annals 

 of Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 118, "Mr. Arbuthnot's plough was, beyond all doubt, 

 the best that was tried and plainly owed its superiority to the share rising as 

 an inclined plane and melting gradually into the admirable sweep of its long 

 mould-board. I was present the whole day, and was so convinced of this, that 

 I determined to apply those parts of it to the others of Mr. Brand's construc- 

 tion. I executed the idea in Hertfordshire, without all the success I expected, 

 but 1 have since brought it to bear, and formed from both, a plough nearer to 

 perfection than any I have yet seen . . . ." 



f Dossie, Memoirs of Agriculture, 1, 12. 



% Annals of Agriculture, XXIX, p. 514. 



