242 



Farming of Cumberland. 



Finlay son's principle governs most of them. Some are calcu- 

 lated for two horses, others for three and upwards to six, and 

 are found to spare a ploughing or two in working fallows. 



Crosskill's clocl-crushers are in a few hands on large farms of 

 clay or heavy soils, and are most effective implements when the 

 land is neither too wet nor too dry, but the high cost prevents 

 their more general adoption. 



Cumberland claims as her own the improved "clod-crusher." 

 The original of this was the Belgian " traineau," altered in 

 shape, and improved from the flat to the ribbed bottom ; the 

 principle of its action is similar to that of the rasp, and it does 

 not consolidate the ground like the roller. Crosskill's being the 

 implement of the great farmer, " this, from its simplicity of con- 

 struction and trifling cost, its ready adaptation to the draught of 

 two or more horses, and, above all, its effective operation in 

 filing down the hard clay lumps on which the common harrows 

 make no impression," but merely tumble about like so many 

 stones, " and which rollers only drive into the soil without 

 breaking,"* is most essentially the poor man's implement. The 

 size best adapted for working on level land with two horses is 5 

 feet long by 4^ broad. For hilly ground 6 or 8 inches smaller 

 in both dimensions is more manageable, as it is apt to slide 

 when worked sideways along the hill. 



Upper surface. 



\i Feet. 



The dotted line on the side view above represents a wooden 

 appendage for transforming the crusher into a sledge, when 

 turned bottom upwards. It may thus be dragged from field to 

 field without the trouble of carting, and without injury to itself; 

 the machine is constructed of any kind of rough timber at hand, 

 and entirely free from finer workmanship than the axe and saw, 

 in the -hands of a good labouring man, can supply. The cost 



* Dickinson's ' Essay on tlie Farming of West Cumberland.' This clod-crushes 

 is now in operation in Surrey, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and various counties 

 northward, to the Carse of Gowrie. 



