302 



Ploughs and Ploughing. 



possible, which is wide in proportion to its depth, and which has 

 the surface rubbish completely buried underneath, and all this 

 in place of the old style of having the furrow-slices squeezed and 

 pasted up close to each other like so many bars of soap. 



If the mouldboard of one of these new ploughs be com- 

 pared with the old, it will be seen that the principal difference 

 is in the comparative lengths of the two and the angle at which 

 they are set. The new pulverising plough has a short, wide-set 

 wrest which cracks and crushes up the soil as it goes along> 

 inverts the top rubbish, and spreads the loose soil (as shown in 

 Fig. 2, No. 4) ; thus making either a capital seed-bed straight 

 away or else leaving the top rough and broken for the winter 

 frosts to act on. The particular curve of the breasts also will 

 be found to differ from the old forms. These latter have a 

 tendency to be more convex on the earth side, but the new 

 chilled steel ones are decidedly concave in their curve, and it is 

 partly to the concavity that the pulverising action is due. 



It must be acknowledged, of course, that for neat work on a 

 piece of tough old turf, or on a stiff clay soil, many of the 



Fig. 3.— General Purpose Chilled Steel Plough. 



" cultivator " forms of the modern plough are not suitable, 

 excepting with a good cutting skim-coulter ; but for work which 

 is calculated to " turn up the virgin soil which never saw the 

 sun," for burying grass or other surface growth, for breaking up 

 the furrow-slice, these new varieties are desirable. Fig. 3 gives 

 a good idea of the modern type of general purpose plough 

 fitted with chilled steel breast, two wheels, and moderately long 

 handles. A skim-coulter can be attached. Fig. 4 is one of the 



