Experimental Inquiry on Draught in PlourjJdng. 235 



Scotch ploughs might excel. It was rather retentive of surface 

 water, though crumbling even in its present state. In summer, 

 when tilled, it falls to powder. • It was a grass ley, but the roots 

 of the herbage could offer little resistance to the plough, as the 

 greater part had been thrown out of the ground in previous win- 

 ters, and the surface was more than half bare. The numbers 

 were as follow : — 



5 inches. 6 inches. 



Ferguson's swing 

 Clark's swing 

 Hart's one-wheel 

 FF two- wheel . 

 FF swing 

 King's swing 

 King's wheel 

 Rutland two-wheel 

 Old Berks 





. 23 . 



22 





. 23 . 



22 





. 16 



18 





. 14 , 



16 





. 21 



23 





, 19 . 



20 





. 18 . 



19 





. 21 



. 22 





. 25 



28 



Average . . 20 . 20f 



It will be seen that the Scotch ploughs did no better here than 

 elsewhere ; in fact, they did worse, since they were heavier than 

 all the other ploughs brought into competition, the old Berkshire 

 being out of the question. They were half as heavy again in their 

 draught as the two lightest ploughs. The numlDers also show 

 that, in this instance only. Hart's plough was beaten by its com- 

 petitor FF, with wheels ; which last I am bound to admit, after a 

 repeated trial, was, on this particular soil, better by two stone than 

 Hart's. It will be seen how much this plough lost here, where 

 the surface was firm, on being worked without wheels, its draught 

 rising from 14 stone to 21 ; that is, being increased by exactly 

 one-half. King's wheel-plough, for the same reason, beat his 

 swing-plough, at both depths, though to a much smaller extent. 



Although there are several other varieties of soil in this neigh- 

 bourhood which I should have been glad to have tried, yet, as I 

 could no longer detain the Clydesdale horses and Scotch ploughs, 

 I was obliged here to close the comparative trials. They are 

 limited in many respects : first, as to the number of the ploughs ; 

 secondly, the kinds of the soil ; thirdly, the state of the soil, which 

 was throughout very wet (it would be, of course, desirable to try 

 each soil in a state of wetness, of moderate moisture, and dry- 

 ness) ; fourthly, they were all but the last on clean ground ; and, 

 finally, they were first ploughings only ; but it would be also 

 well to know the draught of ploughs in other stages of culti- 

 vation. So far as they go, however, they appear to lead to these 

 inferences : — 



1. With regard to the question of wheel and swing ploughs. 



VOL. I. 



s 



