Tlie Evolution of AgriculhLral Implements. 
53 
ing two breasts. He was shortly followed by Handford, a 
Leicestershire plough wright, whose adjustable double plough 
had beams which could be set for any given width of furrow by 
means of screwed stays. 
But the difficulty of turning these heavy implements at the 
land’s end soon favoured improvements in single ploughs, one of 
which, brought from Holland in 1730 by the Earl of Stair, and 
patented in Scotland under the name of the “ Dutch Plough,” 
was soon much appreciated and largely sold. In the same year, 
Stanyforth and Eoljambe, of Rotherham, patented certain im- 
provements in the “ Dutch Plough,” and, for thirty years subse- 
quently, the “ Rotherham Plough,” as this implement was called, 
remained typical of the best ploughwright’s practice, and enjoyed 
considerable success. 
In 1760, Small, of Black- Adder Mount, Berwickshire, brought 
out the “ Scotch Swing Plough,” an improvement on the 
“ Rotherham Plough,” having a wrought-iron beam and handles 
and a cast-iron mould board. Small’s plough did better work, 
with less draught, than its predecessor, which was made 
almost wholly of wood, and its rapid growth in popularity gave 
a great impetus to improvements of various kinds in single- 
furrow ploughs, the Berwickshire implement, however, continu- 
ing to form a model for all its successors. 
In England, a Suffolk blacksmith, named Brand, was the 
first to make an iron plough, which is mentioned with high 
praise in Arthur Young’s Beport on the Agriculture of Suffolk. 
In 1785, Ransome first tempered, and, in 1803, first chilled the 
ploughshare, and about the same period, Simpson, of Cretingham, 
invented the slade. Following Simpson’s lead, Ransome, in 
1808, patented a plough body which could be taken to pieces 
and its parts replaced by the ploughman in the field, and since 
that time no radical changes have been made in the principles 
governing the construction of ploughs. 
Modern ploughs divide themselves into four classes : — 
1. Swing-ploughs. 
2. Wheel-ploughs. 
3. Turnwrist-ploughs. 
4. Double, or multiple, furrow-ploughs. 
The swing and wheel ploughs differ from each other only in 
the absence or presence of wheels, the former, descendants in all 
cases of Small’s plough, being generally of Scotch, and the latter 
of English manufacture. Controversy as to the relative merits 
of swing and wheel ploughs is as old as it is persistent. The 
former require rather more skill in handling, while the latter 
peed a better conditiop of the land for making good work. The 
