• The Evolution of Agricultural Implements. 55 
The objection to Pirie’s plough — as to the double-furrow 
ploughs of Blith, Somerville, and Handford — was the diflBculty 
of raising and turning in at the headland. Smith, of Woolston, 
was the first, in 1855, to patent a device which, improved by 
Eansome in 1873, has now completely obviated the trouble in 
question. The plough is provided, about the centre of its length, 
with a through axle, cranked at each end, and carrying a pair 
of travelling wheels. When the implement is at work, the 
cranked axle is in such a position that its wheels are off the 
ground, but, on the ploughman releasing a catch, the wheels 
take the ground, the onward movement of the horses rolling 
them under the plough, and raising it at the same time, until 
the cranks are vertical, when they come against a stop, and the 
implement rides about like a cart. Other makers accomplish 
the same result by means analogous to those employed by 
Ransomes ; but this ingenious device, the invention of Jefferies, 
first made it practicable for ploughs having two or more beams 
to be easily raised and turned in at the land’s end. 
The function of the plough being that of turning the soil for 
the purjjose of exposing new surfaces to the action of the atmo- 
sphere, opinion has been much divided as to the form of mould 
board best adapted for effecting this object. America and 
England diave taken opposite views of this question, the former 
country adopting short, and the latter long plough breasts. 
Down to 1840, indeed, English practice in this respect varied 
a good deal ; but after that date, and until recently, the prizes 
awarded at ploughing matches fell almost invariably to such 
ploughs as, having very long mould boards, turned furrow-slices of 
rectangular section and laid these down with the utmost regu- 
larity, one upon another, at an inclination of 45 degrees. Since 
the discontinuance of ploughing competitions by the Royal 
Agricultural Society, however, this artificial ideal of good 
ploughing has materially changed its character, and the short 
American breasts, which pulverise the furrow-slice in the act of 
inverting it, have come into favour in this country. 
A word as to the short-handled American and long-haudled 
English ploughs. A plough, in the hands of a good ploughman, 
needs very little guiding, because he sets his irons so that 
neither’ coulter nor share have more than the minimum tendency 
either to hug or leave the soil, while plough handles are levers 
giving the ploughman power to correct these tendencies, at 
the expense, however, of friction and draught. Hence the 
remark, common at ploughing matches, that the man rather than 
the machine wins the prize. From this, the correct, point of view, 
long handles may be regarded as snares for ploughmen, a remark 
