36 
Economy in Cultivation. 
direction may be advantageously effected. Do the Americans 
plough deep ? I am told that the general run of price for 
ploughing in the Far West is a dollar an acre, the contractor 
finding man, horses and plough. How does this compare with 
the cost of ploughing for wheat here ? The inference is that the 
ploughing must be light in America ; and would it be so if there 
were any advantage in a deeper and more expensive process ? 
But I will return to my own gang plough, which was the 
idea I had in my mind when I started on this subject. I dis- 
cussed this matter with Mr. J. E. Ransome, who threw himself 
heartily into the question, taking the greatest pains to construct 
a suitable implement on the basis of the three-furrow plough 
before alluded to, the final result being an implement that is 
admirably adapted for my own and general practice. 
The first gang plough, as I before stated, was somewhat 
heavier than the seed-plough, and the soil being more tenaci- 
ous than this, and the gradients bad in many cases, we put three 
horses (always working abreast) to this plough, very moderate 
animals of no great size or strength. They got over a large 
amount of work, which can be well understood when I state 
that the driver was paid generally by the “job,” and was quite 
content with 1(M. per acre in lieu of wages. The same three 
horses worked the plough all the summer, were kept only 
moderately well, and were in better condition at the end of the 
summer than at the beginning. In many of the fields the 
ploughman would ride on the level ground and downhill, and 
walk up ; and though on side-land ground he sometimes had 
difficulty in keeping the plough well into its work, the general 
result was highly satisfactory, and the work done was decidedly 
better for cleaning, or for a seed bed, than that of the ordinary 
plough. I do not wish to convey the idea that this plough is 
suitable for deep ploughing, or for hard ground. Three horses, 
of course, would not draw such an implement with its three 
furrows, eight inches wide and four or five inches deep, in “ ley” 
ground ; but for spring, summer, and stubble ploughing it is all 
that is required, and my point is that for such work the ordinary 
single plough (which is almost invariably used as a universal 
plough) is too heavy for the work demanded, and that to plough 
only one acre per day (which is more frequently three-quarters 
of an acre) is not enough work for a pair of horses, and that the 
cost is out of proportion to the work done. 
Now, assuming that three smart horses do three acres per 
day, and the cost per horse per week be 6s., and the wages of 
the man 1(M. per acre, the cost would be Is. 1(M. per acre. On 
the other hand, with a single plough, a pair of horses, and a man 
