Ploughs and Ploughing. 



305 



The Disc-Plough. 



And now we come to the plough ' which is the most recent 

 form of all, and which is only now being introduced into this 

 country. This is the disc-plough, illustrated in Fig. 6, which 

 in the great wheat-growing areas in the States is used in 

 from one- to thirty-furrow sets, the latter pulled by a 

 powerful traction-engine. The principle of it is simply the 

 same as is adopted in the case of the disc-harrow, the disc- 



F 1 g. 6. — Disc- Plough . 



coulter for corn drills, and other adaptations of the revolving 

 disc. In this plough the place of the wrest with all its 

 adjuncts is taken by a revolving concave circular plate of 

 steel which — set at the same angles as the mouldboard would 

 be fixed at, perpendicularly and horizontally — cuts its way 

 through the land, revolving as it goes along, and turning over 

 and pulverising the soil at the same time. The success of this 

 implement on the other side of the Atlantic makes it certain 

 that it would succeed here — at least on the lighter soils and in 

 stubble work — while on the principle that rotation causes less 

 friction than sliding, it must be easier of draught in proportion 

 to the work done. 



B B 



