PICTORIAL CULTIVATOR ALMANAC 
17 
THE OLD AND THE NEW PLOWS. 
The first engraving we here present, exhibits the plow at present used in Morocco. It is certainly not fit to be 
, use d at a State Plowing Match, although it may be made very cheap. We believe it has not been patented. 
—"-ydRBES. DKL. 
The point only is shod with iron. Does the reader ask why the Moors continue to the present day to use such a 
wretched implement? The answer is as simple as the question they do not take agricultural papers. 
The next figure represents one of the best plows used 
in Baden, in Germany. This is about equal to the best 
of the ancient plows of Greece and Rome. Why do not 
the Germans have better plows? Agricultural papers 
do not circulate in Germany as they do in this country. 
Thousands of even our middle-aged farmers can remem¬ 
ber when the old “bull plow” was almost our sole im¬ 
plement, and was little if any better than the German 
plow. These periodicals were soon after commenced, 
and the bull plows disappeared. 
Now contrast these awkward machines with those of . , p . 
the best modern construction—for example, take Prouty § Mears’ Centre Draft Plow, with its beauty of form, 
strength lightness, and finish, working with the precision and steadiness of a locomotive, — and then say 
whether we have not the ad¬ 
vantage of these ancient tillers 
of the Eastern World, in being 
able to secure to ourselves, for 
a dollar a year, all the valua¬ 
ble information which is con¬ 
stantly and newly turned out 
by the experience and practice 
of the best farmers of our 
country—and which is now 
circulating among two or three 
hundred thousand of the most 
intelligent cultivators of the 
soil, through the medium of 
the press. 
THE BLACK-FACED SCOTCH SHEEP. 
A singular and wonderfully hardy animal is the Black-faced sheep of the Highlands in Scotland. It is said that 
in the bleakest and wildest pastures of the mountain ranges, none but this kind of sheep can exist. The Mutton 
is remarkable for its fineness and 
delicacy of flavor. The quarters 
weigh about sixteen pounds. 
The fleeces average about four 
pounds, and the wool is used 
only for carpets and the coarser 
worsteds. Some have proposed 
to introduce this sheep into the 
rougher and more mountainous 
districts of this country. 
The Best Manures. —Gyp¬ 
sum is often a very good manure; 
lime is mostly highly useful; 
ashes sometimes operate to great 
benefit; guano is frequently very 
powerful; and yard manure is 
excellent under nearly all cir¬ 
cumstances ;—yet there is reason 
to believe that the best fertilizer 
of all, and one without which 
all of these together will be of 
little use,—is the spirit of in¬ 
dustry, enterprise, and intelli¬ 
gence. 
