February, 1910.] 



135 



Miscellaneous. 



Nicer Points op Setting. 



The nicer setting of the plough is 

 effected from the head or forepart of 

 the beam, where there are two movable 

 parts— one with a vertical movement, 

 aud the other with a lateral. That with 

 the lateral is known as the head, or T- 

 head, and that with the vertical as the 

 hake or sliding head. In the steering of 

 the plough it has to be remembered 

 that it is mainly done by balancing, 

 using the bottom of the body as a 

 pivot. If one wants to make it run 

 more shallow one weighs on the handles, 

 and up comes the head. If one wants 

 it to run to the right one shoves the 

 handles to the left, and it pivots 

 round, and so on. The sliding head is 

 made with a series of notches, which 

 allow the draught chain to be adjusted 

 as desired. When the ground is hard 

 there is a tendency for the share to run 

 upwards, and though the holder can 

 resist to some extent by pressing the 

 head down by holding against the 

 tendency, he can be greatly relieved by 

 allowing the horses to help him. This 

 he does by altering the height of the 

 draught point. Remembering there is 

 a pivot on which the plough balances, 

 it is obvious that the higher the point 

 of attachment the more will the fore- 

 end of the plough be dipped, while the 

 lower the more will it be lifted out. The 

 sliding head, therefore, affords easy 

 correction to other faults which tend 

 against a furrow of even depth. The 

 draught chain, however, can be made to 

 assist, for if short the horses will lift 

 the head, but if long they will pull it 

 down. Ordinarily a short chain suffices, 

 but on hard ground a longer chain 

 gives great relief to the holder, and 

 the plough runs steadier ; also, on very 

 hard ground, when the horses are pull- 

 ing with jerks and rolling, a longer 

 chains makes the plough go more 

 steadily, as more play is allowed than 

 when every motion of the horses is im- 

 parted directly to the plough. 



The T-head is a continuation of the 

 beam, and is quadrant-shape, with pin- 

 holes at near intervals, and is used to 

 assist in controlling lateral swerving of 

 the plough. The pivot action has again 

 to be regarded, and when it is desired to 

 pull the big wheel away from the un- 

 ploughed ground the sliding head is 

 pushed to the left, and if it is required 

 to bite the unploughed land it is pushed 

 to the right, being held in place by 

 means of a pin thrust through holes 

 corresponding in the T-head and the 

 sliding head. The alteration of the 

 position of the sliding head to the rigid 

 beam is necessary also, because the line 



of draught is widely different when 

 horses draw in single line, when two are 

 abreast, or when three are abreast, as 

 each one necessitates the draught being 

 more or loss on one side or the other of 

 the line of the beam, accordingly as the 

 centre of the main whipple-tree is to the 

 line of the beam so must the sliding head 

 be fixed, and remembering the plough 

 pivots it has to be set wide*' in opposition 

 to the way it is desired to turn the head 

 of the plough. 



The Run op the Plough. 

 The setting of the breast or mould 

 board also influences the run of the 

 plough, as the wider it is opened — that 

 is, shoved out by the breast stay — so 

 will it turn the share point on to the 

 work. -With all these means of adjust- 

 ing, it looks as though the setting of a 

 plough ought to be a very simple matter, 

 but the struggling efforts of many 

 ploughmen give contradiction to this. 

 In fact, to get all these points in har- 

 mony takes a considerable period to 

 learn ; moreover, they are subject to 

 alteration every time different work is 

 done, and beyond all this is the know- 

 ledge which directs the best type of 

 work to be done for the purpose ahead. 



When the plough is properly set, and, 

 of course, still more so, when ill-set, 

 there is much to do to make it run so 

 as to give less straiu to the horse and 

 man. By-the-by, one ought to have 

 mentioned that a furrow set deeper on 

 the wing side of the share is always 

 heavier in draught than one set with a 

 level sole or slightly deeper on the little 

 wheel, because the share cuts clean 

 across when it is flat, but when the wing 

 is lower than the preceding furrow the 

 new furrow has to be torn out. On 

 heavy land especially the line of fracture 

 may continue downwards for a consider- 

 able distance, and instead of a 9-inch 

 furrow it may break out 13 or 14 inches, 

 bringing up very objectionable sub- 

 soil. This constitutes coarse ploughing. 

 Coarse ploughing is not dependent upon 

 the depth and width of the furrow, but 

 to this breaking out of the subsoil. 



When one says the plough is balanced 

 with the centre as a pivot this must not 

 be taken to mean that there is merely 

 one spot which acts as pivot ; it is spread 

 over quite a big portion of the body and 

 breast, as occasion demands, and expe- 

 rience alone teaches where to apply 

 from time to time. 



Turning not Easy. 

 The turning of a plough is by no 

 means an easy matter to a novice ; in 

 fact, we recall from the memory of long 



