February, 1909,] 



171 



Scientific Agriculture. 



should not be used among stones, nor 

 should they be used in frosty weather, 

 as they are liable to get damaged very 

 seriously. The ordinary double and 

 treble furrow is mostly useful for 



Eloughing in the autumn, when it has to 

 e fallow through the winter for turnips 

 or oats in the spring. Lea ploughed for 

 wheat should be turned the round-and- 

 round method. In this case it is a lazy 

 man's method. It continually moves 

 the land towards the fences, while 

 denuding the finish in the middle of the 

 paddocks of soil. This applies also, of 

 course, to ploughing steep country 

 round-and-round, but it is unavoidable 

 in this instance. By ploughing in lands, 

 good drainage may be effected ; the laud 

 can be effectually cross-ploughed, and 

 the land can be kept fairly even and 

 level by altering the place for striking 

 out. and finishing. The crown of the 

 land is the high ridge formed by marking 

 out, or striking out, as it is usually 

 called. This marking out is called 

 "feeding." The open furrow between 

 the lands is called the "finish." The 

 furrows may be either gathered towards 

 the crown of the land, or they may be 

 scattered till an open furrow or finish 

 results. In gathering, the team pulls to 

 the right ; "gee-back" is the command 

 given by the ploughmen. In scattering, 

 the horse turns to the left, or "come 

 here," as their driver would say. There 

 are also several kinds of furrows, chief 

 among which is the rectangular furrow, 

 made by a flat-cutting share and an 

 upright coulter or skeith; a high-cut 

 furrow, obtained by using a share raised 

 on the wing side, and a skeith or coulter, 

 cutting a furrow at an angle. The 

 digger plough has a furrow peculiarly 

 its own, which I will attempt to describe 

 later on. 



I have said that the single-furrow 

 plough is very frequently used for 

 marking out and finishing lands. This 

 operation may, however, be done equally 

 well with a double or treble furrow 

 plough; and there are very few who 

 now trouble with a single furrow for 

 marking out. Some prefer three horses 

 for striking out with a double furrow, 

 but it may be done, with practice, with 

 any team. Now that the seed is usually 

 drilled instead of being sown broadcast 

 on the furrow, there is not so much used 

 from the utility point of view for 

 straight ploughing. Ploughing matches 

 are going out of fashion, except in parts 

 of South Canterbury and Southland, but 

 it would be well if our agricultural and 

 pastoral societies took the matter up. 



Stubbles ploughed from autumn oats 

 should be ploughed with an ordinary 

 double-furrow or with one of the many 



kinds of multiple ploughs now being 

 used. These multiple ploughs are princi- 

 pally useful for stubble work, and for 

 turning over land out of turnips for 

 either rape, grass, or oats. Oats are 

 shallow-rooted, and therefore the dagger 

 may be reserved for the deeper-rooted 

 wheat. Sometimes a mistake is made by 

 ploughing too deeply for oats and for 

 turnips. A dry season comes, and the 

 roots fail to reach the subsoil. Had the 

 land been ploughed fairly shallow, say 

 three or four inches, the roots would 

 have reached the stored-up moisture, and 

 would have given a good crop. Moreover 

 being shallow rooted, they get the 

 benefit of auimal droppings and decaying 

 vegetation when the furrow is fairly- 

 shallow, and also of the work of soil 

 bacteria which are always more active 

 near the surface than lower down in the 

 soil. 



I have mentioned digger ploughs 

 several times, and will now endeavour 

 to describe them and their functions. 

 They are daily coming into more extend- 

 ed use, and in parts of Canterbury and 

 Southland are thought very highly of 

 indeed. Personally, I may say that some 

 ten years ago I tried them, but was 

 disappointed at the result, and gave 

 them up. Some half-dozen years ago we 

 had some very wet seasons, and I found 

 that the digger would work where the 

 ordinary plough would not. They left 

 the ground in good condition for sowing 

 grain on, and the crops did well. The 

 secret of the whole matter was that the 

 ploughs were being worked at too great a 

 depth when they were previously being 

 used. The breat or mould-board has a 

 kind of shin on it which acts as a coulter. 

 A skim coulter takes the place of the 

 usual skeith or long coulter. This skim 

 coulter assists in cutting the furrow, 

 but most of the vertical cutting is done 

 by the shin on the mould-board. The 

 horizontal cutting is done by a broad 

 share, which forms the forepart of the 

 mould-board. The shape of the mould- 

 board is different to that on the plain 

 double-furrow. It is much shorter, is 

 slightly disked, and then takes an out- 

 side curve. The earth is thrown out- 

 wards and over, and is not compressed 

 or packed. It is left in much the same 

 condition as it would be if dug with a 

 spade. The land lies loosely, and frost 

 can get into it. The water runs through 

 it, and there is no solid furrow to be 

 worked down. As I have already in- 

 dicated, the digger can be worked in 

 stiff, clay soils in wet weathei, when 

 the plain plough would have to remain 

 idle. It does a great amount of after- 

 cultivation. A stroke of the tines or 

 discs before the drill, and a couple of 



