Wheel and Siving Ploughs. 



145 



to me to be a strong argument in favour of the wheel-ploughs. 

 It has been objected that they create a nursery of bad ploughmen, 

 inasmuch as it is in the power of any one to make a good furrow 

 with a wheel-plough, while it tests the abilities of the man to 

 produce the same effect with a swing -plough. When, however, 

 it is called to mind that boys can be instructed at an earlier age in 

 the use of the plough, and enabled to come into better earnings, 

 than they could do otherwise, as well as that a boy at \0d. per 

 diem wages may benefit his master by making as good work 

 with the one implement as a man at 2s. can execute with the 

 other ; and that the advantage shall be attained of an even furrow 

 throughout the field, rxirely effected by a gang of swing-ploughs, 

 with depth, width, and angle of inclination, performed with 

 almost mathematical precision ; thereby producing an unvarying 

 bed for the seed, and a regular edge for the harrovv^s ; the advan- 

 tage of the wheel-plough can scarcely be estimated too highly, 

 and marks a decided preference. 



In Scotland, indeed, the wheel-plough is not approved ; and in 

 some parts of the country, where, 30 years ago, it was in use, it 

 has been discontinued, having fallen into disrepute by the sup- 

 posed friction of the wheels. It must, however, be observ^ed, 

 that at that period, and in Scotland at the present day, the 

 tvr ought-iron share was the only one used. If then we intrust 

 the depth and breadth of the furrow- slice to the wheels, we must 

 take care that the share and coulter do not operate as conflicting 

 forces. If the blacksmith be not extremely careful in laying the 

 share, he may set the point too low, so as by its inclined direction 

 to occasion an excess of pressure upon the wheels, which must 

 proceed horizontally ; or, if the point incline a trifle too much to 

 land, or to the contrary side, a counter effort is produced, which 

 tends greatly to increase the draught. This is, however, remedied 

 by the practice of casting the share, which must necessarily be 

 alike in shape ; and the improved system of case-hardening them 

 on the under side, as invented by the Messrs. Ransome, remedies 

 the evil of wearing thick, to which cast-iron shares were subject 

 when first introduced : and the dynamometer shows that this most 

 important improvement of modern days has had the desirable 

 effect of reducing the draught ; to say nothing of avoiding the 

 interminable necessity of sending almost every evening to the 

 blacksmith's shop, to have the shares relaid or sharpened. 



I may here mention, in estimating the value of a good swing- 

 ploughman, especially as connected with draught, that in one of 

 my trials I substituted for a first-rate ploughman one who, though 

 no novice, was decidedly his inferior, and who held the same 

 plough for a bout, during Avhich he exerted his best abilities, 

 aware of the comparison about to be instituted, and yet the draught 



VOL. I. L 



