1851 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
107 
Fia. 7. 
Ruggles, Nourse , Mason Co.’s Stubble Plow , Ao. Ao. 37. 
row-slice is cramped into an unnatural movement, and 
Is badly broken. The plow is also too low every way 
for a seven-inch furrow, and is completely buried. We 
find in practice that such plows can only be kept erect in 
furrows seven inches deep, by constant, laborious exer¬ 
tion on the part of the plowman • that they have a con¬ 
stant tendency to ride the furrow at the point where the 
mould-board wings over so much; that the heel of the 
land-side sole is lifted an inch or two from its proper le¬ 
vel position in the furrow-channel, and that the plow In¬ 
clines very much to run on the point of the share. Many 
of our American plows are too wide on the bottom for 
narrow furrows, too low in the mould-board for deep 
furrows, (or furrows seven inches deep,) too short for 
turning any furrows perfectly, and too unsteady in their 
movements generally. 
It is a too common custom with our 
farmers in plowing, to strive to get over 
the greatest possible breadth of land in 
a day, without regard to the best work. 
The furrows are too shallow, and they 
are cut as wide as the plow can possi¬ 
bly turn them, and often even wider, 
the deficiency in the plow being made 
up by the foot of the plowman, or else 
by the u cut and cover systemand 
this gives the plow a very unsteady ac¬ 
tion : the furrows are very crooked and 
uneven; they do not match together at 
all well; the plowman raves and scolds 
and whips: he assumes all sorts of atti¬ 
tudes, the team is chafed and fretted, 
and the whole matter is wrong. It is 
much harder work both for man and 
team to plow so, than it is to take nice, 
straight, uniform furrows. But this is not all the evil. 
The implements that follow the plow cannot do their 
work half so effectively as they would do if the plowing 
had - been accurate and nice,—much less can they do 
what should have been done by the plow. There is no 
work in the whole round of husbandry that more de¬ 
mands the exercise of patience, precision and skill, than 
that of plowing,—-none, where, by the exercise of these 
qualities, the farmer receives a better reward. That 
old worthy, Jethro Tull, in his honest enthusiasm used 
to say, that if land were thoroughly pulverised, manure 
would not be needed. He stated the case pretty strong¬ 
ly ; but it is not stating it too strongly to say, that how¬ 
ever well land may be manured, the crops it is capable 
of producing will not be obtained, unless it is well pul¬ 
verised—unless it is reduced to that state of tilth that 
permits a free circulation of air and moisture through 
it. Not the thick heavy clods, but rather the finely 
pulverised particles form the active portions of the soil. 
In whatever light, then, we view the matter, thorough 
puiverisation should be the aim of the farmer. Deep 
narrow furrows are the best foundation for fine tilth. 
If the plow has failed to prepare this foundation in the 
best manner, no implement following in the cultivation 
can supply the deficiency. 
Fig. 7 represents a land-side elevation, and fig. 8 a 
