( 5S7 ) 



XXVIl. — Report to H.R.H. the President of the Commission for 

 the ExMhition of the Works of Industry of all Nations. 



On Agricultural Implements, Class IX. 



By Ph. Pusey, M.P. 



(Communicated by the Writer.) 



Tn endeavouring to fulfil the command of your Royal Highness, 

 that each reporter should describe, as to its general state, the 

 branch of industry which falls within his department, my task 

 will lead me not to balance the claims of rival inventions, which 

 are far better shown by the results of the trials given in the words 

 of my colleagues, nor yet to portray their construction, which 

 can hardly be conveyed in words, or even by drawings, but to 

 state plainly, if I am able, the practical effect of agricultural 

 machinery upon the soil or its products ; and so, if may be, to 

 further the design of that Exhibition which your Royal Highness 

 purposed not for a gorgeous spectacle only, but, as it has worked 

 itself out, for a focus in which the various nations might combine 

 and compare their scattered rays of realised knowledge. 



As our implements are intended not to bring about new 

 conditions of soil, nor to yield new products of any kind, but to 

 do with more certainty and cheapness what had been done 

 hitherto by employing the rude implements of former centuries, 

 certainty and cheapness of action are evidently the standard by 

 which their merits have to be tried, and chiefly the latter pro- 

 perty, which forms the superiority of the spinning-jenny over the 

 distaff, namely, economy. 



The yearly shows and trials of the Royal Agricultural Society 

 have certainly done more in England for agricultural mechanics 

 within the last ten years than had been attempted anywhere in 

 all former time. Yet though the inventions are many, they may 

 be reduced to a few simple classes : in reviewing those classes, it 

 will be most convenient perhaps to follow the order of cultiva- 

 tion, beginning with the instruments of tillage, and, among these, 

 with the plough. 



Instruments of Tillage. 

 1. Plough. 



It was found about twelve years ago that in many parts of England 

 ploughs drawn by four horses were still used, while in the same 

 neighbourhood, or even parish, other ploughs were at work 

 equally easy for two horses. The cumbrous plough, resting on a 

 heavy gallows and wheels, had been adapted to the clav soils when 

 those soils were the chief source of corn to the country, and had 

 been handed down from father to son, after the heavy lands had 

 been widely laid down to grazing ground, and the former downs 



