236 Experimental Inquiry on Draught in Ploughing. 



wherever the soil is firm enough to bear up the wheels^ they 

 appear to me to be advantageous : the best plough^ therefore, will 

 be one, the wheels of which can be taken off or put on, according 

 to the state of the ground ; and as, where there is one wheel 

 only, it will be on the unploughed ground, where it will be less 

 likely to become clogged, one wheel only is probably better than 

 two. 



2. It may be fairly said that the lightest plough in these trials 

 was Hart's, though Ransome's FF ran it exceedingly near, and 

 beat it in the last trial. The best and lightest plough on a wet 

 clay was King's swing, with a wooden mould-board. Hart's 

 plough on our lighter land goes as easily with 2 horses, and 

 King's on wet clay with 3 horses, as our old Berkshire, with 3 

 horses on the former ground, and with 4 on the latter. These 

 2 ploughs have the open mould-board, but how far that contributes 

 to their excellence I cannot discover. Ransome's Rutland plough 

 appears to be a very good implement, the Scotch swing-plough 

 to be the heaviest of all the modern ploughs which were tried, 

 not to make a clean furrow, to be out of the question upon any 

 light soil, and to be by no means the best upon a heavy one. 



3. As to the effect of different soils upon the working qualities 

 of the ploughs, the trials were too limited, and my own inexpe- 

 rience too great, for me to offer any opinion upon this point. 



4. With regard to the different tenacity of soils, the following 

 Table contains the average draught of all the ploughs on each of 

 the different fields : — 



Average Draught at Geologicai 

 5 inches by 9. Situation. 



Trial 1. Sandy loam . 17i stone 



2. Clay loam . 47-^* 



3. Loamy sand . 16f 



4. Strong loam . 31-|- 



5. Clay loam . 28f 



6. Moorv soil . 20 



Coral rag. 

 Oxford clay. 

 Coral rag. 

 Kimmeridge clay. 

 Kimmeridge clay. 

 Alluvial gravel. 



The coral rag shows a tenacity of 17 stone only, while the 

 Kimmeridge clay on its south stands at 30, and the Oxford clay 

 on its north at 47. It is on the middle band, however, of the 

 upper oolite that the trials were made ; on either edge where it 

 approaches the clay formations it becomes tougher. The most 

 remarkable point, however, seems to me to be the difference be- 

 tween the two districts of clay, one of them being worse by one- 

 half to work than the other, although there is no observable dis- 

 tinction in their general appearance. 



* This furrow was 6 inches deep on one side, but the furrow-slice was 

 thrown downwards. 



