656 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



better to take it at its present perfection, and, 

 if possible, suggest improvements which may 

 be made. As mechanical arts make advance- 

 ment it is found that a necessity arises for new 

 varieties of tools, and artisans, who used but 

 few in the infancy of their professions, find it 

 necessary to adopt various modifications of 

 these tools to meet the requirements of their 

 improved art. It is so to a great extent with 

 the implements of agriculture; instead, there- 

 fore, of endeavoring to find a plow that shall 

 answer for sod, stubble, sub-soil, and tillage, it 

 will be better to find out what peculiarity is re- 

 quisite to make it perfect for any one of these 

 purposes, and form the plow for that purpose 

 alone, instead of endeavoring to make it capa- 

 ble of being used for all. 



In suggesting improvements in the construc- 

 tion of the plow, as in all other things connect- 

 ed with farming, it will not do to consult sci- 

 ence without taking experience into the council. 

 The calculations of the mathematician are some- 

 times thwarted by some unknown or unfore- 

 seen principle, only detected when attempted 

 to be applied to practice. 



Every observing farmer, while following the 

 plow, has thought of some improvement which 

 he could make if he were a mechanic, by which 

 its working might be improved; in many cases 

 if these thoughts could be worked out by an 

 ingenious mechanic, the thing required would 

 be accomplished and improvements result. As 

 it is, the farmer having to make his idea clear to 

 the meciianic, v.dio labors generally under the 

 disadvantage of nft understanding the object of 

 the proposed modification, it requires generally 

 much patience even to approach the desired 

 improvement. There is one circumstance 

 which tends to render improvements in agri- 

 cultural implements slower than in the imple- 

 ments of the mechanic. The farmer uses his 

 implements generally by seasons, and any sug- 

 gestion, which he may wish to have acted upim 

 by the mechanic, or any experiment by the 

 mechanic, submitted to the farmer for trial, 

 must be tested in the season of that implement, 

 be it plow or reaper, or it must He over for 

 another season, with great liability of being al- 

 together forgotten. 



A plow for the purpose of breaking up new 

 ground should be so constructed as to cut all 

 but the largest roots, and not be liable to hang 

 upon those too large for it to cut. To meet 

 this requisition a cutter should be constructed 

 to pass through tlie beam perpendicular to the 

 surface of the ground, and'^rest upon the point 

 of the share by a shoulder on its edge nearest 

 the plow, the cutting edge to be rounded from 

 a line with the bottom of the share to such a 

 point on its front edge as shall be found to 

 bring sufficient force upon the roots which it 

 meets to sever all which are not too large to 

 cause the plow to pass over them by their resis- 

 tance against the edge of the cutter. The land 

 side should be closed with a plate of steel, to 



prevent the ends of the severed roots from 

 hanging in the plow as they spring back. In 

 every other respect it may be formed like a 

 common sod plow. An implement somewhat 

 on the above principle bus been constructed 

 and found to work well on new ground. A 

 light draft and complete inversion of soil are the 

 desiderata in the new-groutid plow. 



The sod plow is probably the most important 

 modification of this implement. In breaking 

 up sod land the aim is so to invert the sod as 

 entirely to kill the grass and at the same time 

 bury it so deep that the culture of the crop 

 shall not bring up the grass or disturb the in- 

 verted sod. For this purpose the principle of 

 the double plow seems well adapted, as the 

 foremost plow cuts off the sod and deposits it 

 in the bottom of the last furrow. The objec- 

 tion to the double plow now in use seems to be 

 its heavy draft, but, by the use of two or even 

 three yoke of oxen, the most perfect plowing 

 can be done with it. If horses are used, a 

 team of three horses, harnessed with a com- 

 pensating double- tree, or, as sometimes called, 

 a triple-tree, will be found a more efficient 

 team than four horses attached to the plow by 

 means of wagon wheels, as is generally prac- 

 ticed. The modification necessary to adapt 

 the double plow to sod land seems to be that 

 the small-furrowed plow should have a mould- 

 board with a low angle, so as merely to turn 

 the sod over in an inverted condition into the 

 furrow below it. It should not be required to 

 lift the sod or soil at all. It should be provi- 

 ded with a sharp cutter. The after plow, 

 which is larger, should have its mouldboard 

 long and of easy slant enough to lift the soil 

 well out of the furrow and deposit it high upon 

 the last furrow-slice. These first objects being 

 attained, if draft will admit of it, it may be 

 steep enough to crush and disintegrate the soil 

 as much as possible, as this is one object in 

 plowing to prepare the soil for crops. As a 

 team of two horses will always be the most de- 

 sirable plow team for the mnjority of farmers, 

 on account of its adapted n ess to all other work 

 on the farm or road, it is very desirable that 

 plows should be constructed with a view to the 

 adaptedness of their fbrce, even for the deep- 

 est tillage. It will be more economical, there- 

 fore, where thorough work is done, to use two 

 separate plows and teams to do the work which 

 the double plow purposes to do with one. In 

 this case the diff'erent modifications of the 

 plow should be adhered to, but, as the draft is 

 to be divided equally, the foremost plow should 

 be made to run deeper than is contemplated in 

 the double plow. The equal division of the 

 labor can only be decided by the use of the di/- 

 namomeier. 



This method of plowing has long been prac- 

 ticed and is called trench plowing. It would 

 seem that the great defect in practice, hereto- 

 fore, has been in* using two plows of similar 

 form and constrjuction for such very dissimilar 



