306 



Ploughs and Ploughing. 



In its present form it is, of course, quite capable of improve- 

 ment for British purposes ; we have not, for instance, yet come 

 across a variety with a skim-coulter in front, for it does the 

 cutting work of the ordinary coulter as it revolves along, like a 

 wheel-coulter in itself. Now for our work a skim-coulter is 

 absolutely necessary. American farmers, with the best imple- 

 ments in the world, do their work in a very slip-shod and slap- 

 dash manner, and in ploughing are not at all particular about 

 making a tidy job and getting all the tails or rags of the 

 surface growth hidden ; a style of work which would be fatal 

 to our crops in this damp climate and with our comparatively 

 mild winters, and therefore a skim-coulter (which can easily 

 be put on) is an absolute necessity, more especially in ploughing 

 lea-land. 



It must be acknowledged, of course, that a plough of this sort 

 would not work very well in stony or rocky soil. Whenever it 

 encountered a stone it would have a tendency to rise over it 

 and thus be thrown out of the ground, but for all homogeneous 

 soils of any kind, from sand to clay, it would work exceedingly 

 well. 



To sum up : the modern plough is developing into a machine 

 like the following : — The frame will run on the adjustable wheels, 

 to which is attached a disc-breast, with skim-coulter to suit ; 

 there will be a seat for the driver, a spring bridle attachment, 

 the wearing surfaces of chilled and polished cast steel, and the 

 whole of the frame and other parts of comparatively light 

 malleable ribbed steel ; while a trailing tail-knife or prong will 

 be fitted on for the purpose of helping the breaking up and 

 spreading of the furrow-slice. Probably one furrow will be 

 adopted instead of two, but that will be wide in proportion to 

 its depth, and be much broken up as it is turned over. 



Double-furrozv Plough. 



When one begins to study the origin of customs, we find that 

 some curious questions arise. For instance, it is an almost 

 universal rule in this country to have two horses pulling 

 together at the same plough. Why ? We are bound to say 

 that we do not know of any reason why, excepting that it is 



