350
the plough. A turn-wrest plough, however, by layiug theslices all one way, would certainly execute the work better,than ploughing round and round, which must make, at thebest, but an awkward finish.
§4 .Of different kinds of ridges. —In ploughing land, thereare a variety of ways of forming the ridges or lands. 1. On drysoils, the plits of each ridge arei'sometimes all laid in one direc-tion, while those of the next adjoining ridges are turned thecontrary way. This is termed casting. 2. On what maybe term-ed middle soils, the ridges are split out, in which way thecrown of the old ridge becomes the furrow of the new one.This mode of ploughing is technically named ridge and fur-row, or crown and furr in the agricultural language of Scot-land . 3. It is indispensably necessary, on all strong soils, toform the ridges by twice gathering all the furrow-slices inwardsin the direction of the crown; but in this case all the ridges arecontinually preserved in their original situation, and the inter-furrows in the same places. 4. When breaking up these twicegathered ridges, for being afterwards worked as summer fal-low, it is customary to split or cleave them down, reversely tothe former operation, by turning all the furrow-slices outwards,beginning at the furrows, and ending at the crowns: In thisoperation, the ridges are all reduced to half their originalbreadth; the old water-furrows are carefully opened up, toserve as surface-drains, and an additional intermediate seriesof water-furrows are formed at the cloven crowns. 5. In for-mer days, land intended for barley next year, was often thrownup, alter harvest, into a species of one-bout ridgelets or drills,eaving a slip of fast land unploughed in the heart of each,covered up by the two ploughed plits. This antiquated modeof half ploughing, was termed ribbing, or rice-baulking, and•is now rarely met with in well-cultivated districts.
When working summer fallows, or reducing turnip-landto fine tilth, cross ploughing is indispensably necessary to pul-verise the soil, both for the sake of effectual tillage, and for