Exjjeriences of a Scotsman on the Essex Glaijt?. 315 
decided opinion that it ought not to be cultivated at all, at least 
with horses. 
While on the subject of ploughs, I may mention that no 
Scotsman can possibly approve of the native Essex wooden im- 
plement. Apart altogether from its clumsiness, it has two faults : 
the mould-board has not got twist enough, so that it does not 
turn the furrow-slice properly ; while the share commonly used 
has too wide a feather, so that the furrow-slice is cut clean out, 
and will not hold against the mould-board sufficiently to be 
turned. These defects do not appear in stubble or fallow 
ploughing, but become at once apparent in lea land ; in fact, I 
thought the ploughing was well enough for the first three or 
four years after I came to Essex, and it was only when we began 
to break up land which had been laid away in pasture for that 
length of time that the gapiug, badly-turned furrows could be 
seen, and led me to try other and more improved ploughs. 
North-countrymen who have brought their old ploughs with 
them find they do not suit the soil : the mould-boards are too short 
and wide set, so that two horses cannot pull them ; while if the 
wearing surfaces are of the country-smithy, cast-iron kind, the 
friction would be too much for even three horses. 
I must acknowledge, however, that there are many things 
about the native system of ploughing superior to that of the 
North, and these we have of course adopted. In opening up lea 
land from the fiat, it is the custom here to '-plough out" two 
furrows in what will be the centre of the ridge or " stetch." One 
of the said furrows is " chucked away," and then the furrows are 
ploughed inwards of the full depth from the first. In the 
Scottish method, the furrows are ploughed inwards from the 
beginning — very narrow and shallow at first, and the result is 
that, though the crown may be perfectly level across (one of the 
tests of good ploughing at matches), yet the grass springs all 
too readily among the ci'op wliei'e these shallow furrows are. • I 
find our ploughmen lay off the ridges (or "stetches") much more 
easily than ever I was accustomed to in the North. A man will 
'• draw off" a field with his plough and a pair of horses with no 
assistance, and do it perfectly well. He carries a 7-foot mea- 
suring stick in the body of his plough, with which to lay off the 
widths ; a few twigs cut from the nearest fence are used as 
marks, or saplings split down the middle so as to show a white 
face which can be seen at a distance, and that is all. The reins 
hang loose on the stilts of the plough, the horses are guided by 
the voice aloue, and the result is furrows of marvellous straitrht- 
ness. It is not uncommon in the North to see two men with 
sticks painted like barbers' poles, and a tape, or even Gunter's 
y 2 
