P L O 
Under the article Husbandry, vol. x. we have defer!- 
bed and figured feven different kinds of plough, with a 
great variety of harrows, fowing-machines, -drags, &c. 
New inftruments have been invented fince, but none that 
have obtained fuch a permanency as to induce us to 
lengthen this article, or increafe the number of our 
agricultural plates, by entering Into the hiftory of them. 
The la ft plough we noticed under that article, (p. 587.) 
is Cartwright’s three-furrow plough. Since that time, 
(1816) Mr. Nichols, of the Nant, near Monmouth, has 
invented a fowing-plough which has fix (hears, turning 
three furrows to the right and three to the left, and com¬ 
pleting two fmall wheat-ridges. The proprietor has 
fown about eight acres with it in the courfe of a day. 
The plough will do the work of fix men and fix boys, 
with an extra boy to guide an arrow attached to one of 
its fides, (and that without an additional horfe.) It will 
do the work of fifteen people and twelve horfes. 
The Chinefe plough, on the other hand, has but one 
handle, and no coulter at all, it being unneceffary, as 
there is no lay-ground, and confequently no turf to cut 
through in China. Staunton , vol. i. and the figure, vol.ii. 
p. 363. 
It has been feen (Husbandry, p. 586.) that the 
Suffex plough goes without a driver. A plough has 
lately (1820) been invented by the Rev. Dr. Cartwright 
(probably the inventor of the three-furrow plough), 
which goes without horfes. With two men to keep it in 
motion, and a third to regulate its courfe, it performs its 
office with as much precifion and difpatch as could be 
done by any common pair of horfes and a plough-holder. 
The utility of the invention will not, it is prefumed, be 
confined to this objeil only; it being equally applicable 
to every purpofe to which horfes can be employed, 
except conveying a burden on the back. 
A few years back, when a great number of labourers 
were out of employ, much was written in favour of fpade- 
cultivation, as a molt advantageous way of fupplying the 
furplus or fupernumerary labourers with employment. 
Wherever the foil is good to the depth of ten or twelve 
inches, fpade-cultivation produces greater crops than the 
plough; at the fame time it is admitted, that to fubftitute 
fpade-cultivation for plough-cultivation over the whole 
country would be retrograding in a ftrange and injurious 
manner; but there is a medium, or rather combination of 
the two, that might be attended with advantage. If all 
the arable land cultivated by the plough, that is deep 
enough in good foil, were to be delved with the fpade 
once in ten or twelve years, it might be attended with 
advantage in point of affording greater crops. In that 
cafe, for every farmer to dig or delve one tenth of his 
land every year, would be the bell way to put the plan in 
execution ; and, if that were found to anfwer it would 
give employment to a great number of hands. The fu- 
perior produce, by fpade-cultivation, is afeertained fo far, 
that any given number of acres, cultivated by the fpade, 
will yield better crops than if they were cultivated by 
the plough. It would then, at leaft, be well worth while 
to try the experiment of occafionally digging a ploughed 
field ; for, if that anfwered, it would be attended with 
every advantage in a country that is fully peopled, as it 
would increafe the demand for labour, as well as the 
profits of the farmer, and the quantity of the food. In 
a nation where the number of inhabitants is increafing fo 
faft as it feems they are now doing in this country, it is 
at leaft prudent, if not abfolutely neceffary, to adopt 
every plan that will reconcile increafed population with 
increased profperity. Population, which is the foun¬ 
dation of the greatnefs of a country, if carried to too 
high a point, may occafion its decline; but a decline can 
never be brought on by that caufe, fo long as labour can 
be found to employ, and food to nourilh, the inha¬ 
bitants. 
To PLOUGH, v. n. To prafiife aration; to turn up 
P L O 699 
the ground, in order to fow feed.—Doth the ploughman 
plough all day to fow ? Ifaiah, xxviii. 24. 
Rebellion, infolence, fedition 
We ourfelves have plough’d for, fow’d, and fcatter’d, 
By mingling them with us. 
To PLOUGH, v. a. To turn up with the plough.—A 
man may plough, in ftiff grounds the firft time fallow’d, 
an acre a-day. Mortimer. 
Let the Volfcians 
Plough Rome and harrow Italy. Shakefpeare’s Coriol. 
Should any flave, fo lewd, belong to you ; 
No doubt you’d fend the rogue, in fetters bound, 
To work in Bridewell, or to plough your ground. Dry den. 
To bring to view by the plough : with up. —-Another 
of a dufky colour, near black; there are of thefe fre¬ 
quently ploughed up in the fields of Welden. Woodward .— 
To furrow ; to divide.—-With fpeed we plough the watery 
way. Pope's Odyffey. 
When the prince her funeral rites had paid 
He plough'd the Tyrrhene feas with fails difplay’d. AeWi/cn. 
To tear; to furrow. 
Let meek Oftavia plough thy vifage up 
With her prepared nails. ShakeJ'peare's Ant. andCleop. 
PLOUGH'-ALMS, /. Anciently every ploughland 
paid a penny to the church, called plough-alms. Cowel. 
PLOUGH'-BOTE,/ [plough, and bole, Sax. compenfa- 
tion.] Allowance of wood fufficient for making or re¬ 
pairing a plough.— Plough-bote and carte-bote are wood 
to be employed in making and repairing all inftruments 
of hufbandry. Blackjlone. 
PLOUGH'-BOY, f. A boy that follows the plough ; a 
coarfe ignorant boy.—A plough-boy that has never feen. 
anything but thatched houfes and his parifh-church, 
imagines that thatch belongs to the very nature of a 
houfe. Watts's Logich. 
PLOUGH'-LAND, f. A carucate. See Carucate, 
vol. iii.—In this book are entered the names of the 
manors or inhabited townihips, the number of plough¬ 
lands that each contains, and the number of the inhabi¬ 
tants. Hale. —For the compiling this great roll of the 
kingdom, fix (hillings was raifed upon every plough-land. 
Temple’s Intr. Hijl. of Eng. —A farm for corn : 
Who hath a plough-land cafts all his feed corn there 
And yet allows his ground more corn Ihould bear. Donne. 
PLOUGH'-MAN, f. One that attends or ufes the 
plough ; a cultivator of corn.—The careful ploughman 
doubting (lands. Miltons P. L. —The merchant gains 
by peace, and the foldier by war, the (liepherd by wet 
feafons, and the ploughman by dry. Temple. 
Your reign no lefs a (Cures the ploughmans peace, 
Than the warm fun advances his increafe. Waller . 
A grofs ignorant ruftic : 
Her hand ! to whofe foft feizure 
The cignet’s down is har(h, and, fpite of fenfe, 
Hard as the palm of plough-man. Shakefpeare. 
A firong laborious man.—A weak ftomach will turn 
rye-bread into vinegar, and a plough-man will digeft it. 
Arbuthnot on Aliments. 
PLOUGH'-MAN’S SPI'KENARD. See Baccharis 
and Conyza. 
PLOUGH-MON'DAY, f. The Monday after Twelfth- 
day. See Monday, vol. xv. p. 650. 
Plough-monday, next after that the twelftide is pad, 
Bids out with the plough, the word hufband is laft. Tujfer. 
PLOUGPI'-SHARE, f. The part of the plough that 
is perpendicular to the coulter.—As the earth was turned 
up, the plough-Jkare lighted upon a great (lone; we 
pulled that up, and fo found fome pretty things. Sidney .— 
The 
