8 



Present State of the Science of 



2000 years olcl^ has recently received great improvement^ and 

 the best construction of it is even yet matter of controversy. 

 There is no doubt that^ by giving a more suitable curve to that 

 part of it^ the mould-board, which turns over the earth which has 

 been detached with the share, and by substituting iron for wood 

 on its surface, the friction has been so greatly diminished, that the 

 new ploughs, being in other respects also of a far better shape, 

 effect a diminution in draught, which may be estimated within 

 compass at the saving of half a horse's labour on a team of three 

 horses ; and the Scotch or swing-plough is now very generally 

 used with two horses, the ploughman holding the reins. Nothing 

 shows more the necessity of communication among the agricul- 

 tural body than that the old cumbrous machines, with a high 

 carriage in front and two large wheels, drawn by four heavy 

 horses, should still be retained even on the light soils of some 

 of our southern counties. Still it is yet a question whether the 

 advocates of the swing-plough have not gone too far when they 

 have asserted that there is no land so stiff in which it may not be 

 worked by a pair of horses ; and it is indeed almost admitted 

 that, on parts of the London clay formation, they have been beaten 

 by the strength of the ground. It is even doubted whether one 

 wheel might not be advantageously restored to the plough ; and 

 those ingenious mechanicians, the Messrs. Ransome, of Ipswich, 

 have constructed a plough which admits of being used without a 

 wheel, with one wheel, or with two. These doubts should be 

 cleared up with regard to different soils by observation ; and it may 

 be worth inquiry whether ploughs of different constructions, with 

 different amount of horse-power, may not be applicable to the same 

 soil in various stages of cultivation, in first breaking the stubble, for 

 instance, on heavy land, and in the cross-ploughings which follow. 

 The other ancient implement, the harrow, is confessedly a most 

 imperfect one, as its downward pressure is insufficient, and in the 

 wrong direction, for cleansing from weeds the ground which it 

 scarcely penetrates. Mr. Finlayson's harrow, however, as it is 

 called, though in fact a new and ingenious implement, is little 

 used by practical farmers in some of our southern counties ; but 

 this harrow, as well as the further improvement, inadequately 

 named a scarifier, is not only efficient for cleansing the land, but 

 may sometimes be made also to supply the place of the plough. 

 The use of another instrument, the drill- machine, a more com- 

 plicated one, by which the seed is laid in regular rows, has lately 

 become frequent in southern as Avell as in northern England, 

 though it has established itself so slowly, that, for a long time, 

 travelling-machines of this kind have made yearly journeys from 

 Suffolk as far as Oxfordshire, for the use of those distant farmers 

 by whom their services are required. 



