310 
Rqwrt on the Exhibition of Implements 
ments previously made at the Society's trials. The judges con- 
sidered the second-best work to have been done by Messrs. 
Sanders, Williams, and Taylor; their remark on Messrs. Ran- 
some's performance being that their ploughman was considered 
to have taken too wide a slice for the depth, which gave his work 
a less perfect and a less satisfactory finish. 
The six ploughs, with Messrs. Ransome's prize-plough of last 
year, were then transferred to a piece of land on Mr. Pusey's 
farm at Longworth, consisting of strong Oxford clay — a clay of 
that tenacious, unmised, and decidedly " 7i07?e5i ' nature, which 
also characterises (though belonging to another geological stratum) 
the Wealds of Kent and Sussex. In this field was working the 
antiquated wooden Berkshire plough, with its high wheels and 
gallowses, drawn cleverly by three strong oxen. On putting the se- 
lected iron ploughs into this soil, the swings were quickly doomed 
as incapable of work. The wheel-ploughs struggled for a while 
with four horses to each, but no one of them succeeded in turning 
a satisfactory furrow 7 inches in depth ; they laboured, indeed, 
on the points of their shares only, their hinder parts being nearly 
level with the top of the furrow-slice, and the team of four being 
evidently distressed. Though the land had been underdrained at 
20 feet apart, and 34 inches in depth, ploughing it with two 
horses, with any plough, would evidently be impracticable. The 
judges were of opinion that Messrs. Ransome's prize-plough of 
last year performed somewhat better than the others, but that 
none of them were fitted to cope with this peculiarly heavy land. 
The Society's prize " for the plough best adapted for heavy land" 
was therefore withheld, on the ground of insufficient merit. 
It has been suggested in former Reports that one cast of plough 
and one form of mould-board and share cannot be etjually correct 
and suitable for all soils; and a useful moral may be drawn by 
the mechanic from the result of the trials at Pusey, viz., that all 
that is ancient in agriculture is not, therefore, to be despised : and 
that there may be very sufficient cause for the dogged preference 
given by the Berkshire, Kent, and Sussex clay-larmcrs to their 
old accustomed implements. It is the business of the plou^li- 
vvriglit to discover wherein lies the secret of this excellence, and 
to apply it, if he can, to the composition of a less cumbersome, 
more sightly, and still more efficient machine. 
One- Way, or Turn-iorcst Ploughs. — After trial in competition 
with other ploughs of this kind produced by Mr. Comins, Mr. 
Read, and others, the Society's prize of 5/. was awarded to Mr. 
Henry Lowcock, of Westerland, Marldon, Devon. This plough, 
which received a premium at Southampton, was found improved 
on the present occasion, being less tickle, and more comfortable 
in the handling; but the judges entertain the opinion that it is 
