246 
Farming of Oxfordshire. 
are yoked in unicorn fasliion. The hills are celebrated for good 
ploughmen and very bad seedsmen. On some of the steepest 
declivities the land is ploughed down-hill, and the plough is 
drawn up without taking a furrow : it is a good plan to plough 
sidling ground in a circle. In the north of the county are some 
double ploughs which plough two furrows at a time. The 
common foot-plough used on the light and flat lands of Oxford- 
shire, has the beam and handles of wood, one wheel, and a short, 
abrupt mould-bbard or turn-furrow. On clay soils a very long 
swing-plough, with a wooden mould-board, is used. The first of 
these, known by the name of the Watlington plough, tears up 
the furrows and sadly breaks clover leys ; while the latter cuts 
through the soil like a wedge, without turning the furrow-slice 
over. The advocates of this primitive implement contend that 
the clay soil slips off the wooden mould-board better than from 
iron ; that wheels speedily clog, and are therefore useless ; and 
that the rougher the soil is left the better, and that it does not 
require to be pressed down by a long mould-board. On light 
land, and even on stiff ground, Howard's iron-ploughs are becom- 
ing general: they certainly possess many advantages, but have 
too many joints, and nuts, and screws about them. They are so 
steady that if properly started at the land's end they will go 
across a field without tlie handles being touched : they also per- 
form their work admirably, cutting a clean square furrow and 
turning it completely over without breaking it. With a steel 
breast the mould w ill slip off as well as from wood ; with proper 
scrapers wheels will not clog ; and if it is objected that a plough 
turns the furrow-slice over, an implement that will not do so 
is no better than a grubber. 
The harrows are rectangular and made of wood ; three are 
usually employed at once : tliere is no gang of whippletrees, 
but each horse pulls his own harrow, A boy drives the horses 
and the carter walks behind, or not unfrequently, on clean land 
where the harrows do not clog, lies under the fence a rjreat part 
of the day. A sort of giant drag harrow, about 5 feet square, is 
often used instead of a scarifier. 
The Oxfordshire or Woodstock waggons are light and well- 
constructed. A harvest waggon does not weigh above 16 or 18 
cwt., and will carry as much corn as can be laid on at harvest 
cart, and 25 sacks of barley on the road. A new waggon, with 
all good materials and workmanship, costs about 30 guineas. 
One-horse carts are used by many of the gentry, but are by no 
means common. Whatever praise be awarded to the waggons, 
nothing can be said in favour of the dung-carts : ill shaped, 
clumsy, and absurdly heavy, they are when empty a good load for 
any horse ; a better formed and lighter cart is coming into vogue. 
