"Class IX.
226
soil contain sharp sand, there will be no cohesion; it M illwork freely off the mould-board, which will be keptbright, and the shorter its surface the less will the frictionbe. For such soils, therefore, as are common in Scotland short mould-boards may be the best. But most English soils contain so much clay as will adhere to and fill up thehollow of a short mould-board, so that the furrow-slicewill have to work not upon an iron surface, but upon themost disadvantageous of all surfaces, one of rough loam,and the draught may thus be easily doubled by frictionand cohesion together. Hence, our English mould-boardshave been very properly lengthened, the more properly, Isuppose, because the same soil will more often have to beworked in a moist state here than in continental Europe.*Many of the foreign ploughs, it should be said, behaved,under all disadvantages, exceedingly well, and were, nodoubt, better suited than ours for their respective loca-lities.
Ploughing, itself, is certainly a singular instance ofgreat skill acquired by a body of men who scarcely, aswas remarked by Lord Ashburton , receive the credit dueto that skill. A good ploughman will set up a pole aquarter of a mile distant or more, and keeping this mark,almost invisible, steadily in his view, will, on land per-fectly smooth, trace up to that goal, until his horses knockit down as they pass on each side, a furrow so true thatno eye cau detect any divergence from absolute straight-ness. If one saw for the first time a field of short greenclover converted in a few hours into a surface of cleanbrown soil in regular ribs, it would be regarded as atriumph of art. I mention this, the rather because inspeculative writing, the plough is sometimes depreciated,and the spade is extolled, though this very operation ofpreparing our wheat land could scarcely be executed atall by spade, since it is necessary that the existing swardshould be perfectly buried. The caution seems morenecessary, because, as we have seen in the ExhibitionBuilding, ingenious attempts are being made at steamdigging, as well as steam ploughing.
The result of the trial of ploughs will he found in thefollowing report of Mr. Shelley.
Hesitlt of Trial of Plolthis at Pl-sev, by William Miles,
Esq., M.P., aud Jons V. Siielley, Esq., assisted by Mr.
T. P. OuthWAITE.
The English and Scotch ploughs, eighteen in number,were put to work in the first instance at a depth not ex-ceeding five inches—the land a young clover-ley, in excel-lent condition for the trial of light-laml ploughs. Theploughs consisted of nine 2-M-heel, three 1-wheel, and six
SM'ing-ploughs. The M'ork of the 2-wheel ploughs m-qsgenerally good ; for the first test, not exceeding five inches,M e found, the following most deserving of commendation inthe order in which they are placed:—
No. 1. Ball’s.
No. 2. Howard’s, marked XX.
No. 3. Howard’s, marked XXX.
The same ploughs M r cre then put to work at a depth notless than seven inches, when ue found the following did theM'ork best in the order in which they arc placed:—
No. 1. Busby’s.
No. 2. Howard's, marked XX.
No. 3. Howard’s, marked XXX.
Ball’s plough, which at five inches appeared No. 1, brokethe land too much at the extra depth, owing to the forma-tion of the mould-hoard pressing too heavily on the furrow.The M’ork done by the whole of the swing-ploughs M T asmoderate, especially that by the Scotch ploughs. M-hich Masdecidedly bad. The three best ploughs, viz., Mr. Busby’s,Mr. Hou-ard’s, and Mr. Ball’s, were then taken to the heavyland, and M ere subjected to a very severe test. The M-orkthere M as satisfactorily completed, and we place the ploughsaccording to the following order of merit:—
No. 1. Bushy’s.
No. 2. IIoMard’s.
No. 3. Ball’s.
Mr. Howard had one plough only tried on the stiff land.The ploughs M’ere tested as before—first, at not less thanfive inches deep, and then at ifot less than seven inches, amithe same result appeared at both depths. The objectionobserved in the plough of Mr. Howard was, that thereappeared to be too much curvature in the tail of the mould-board, M-hich caused the land to break up in turning, anda great advantage M*as thus given to the plough of Mr.Busby: at the same time, the work done by Mr. Hou’ard’splough was very good; that of Mr. Ball’s good ; but that ofMr. Busby's n*as superior.
Three 4-horse ploughs were tried in the lighter land at adepth of from nine to ten inches ; they appeared on that inthe ollowing order of merit:—
No. 1. Busby’s; No. 2. Ilensman’s; No. 3. IIoM-ard’s.
Six subsoil ploughs exhibited :
No. 1. Bcutall’s ; No. 2. Grey and Sons ; No. 3. Comins’;No. 4. Coleman’s.
In the latter an improved system of adjusting the leverappeared, the construction of M-hich we consider to begood.
In the turn-wrist ploughs we considered that none wereexhibited deserving of remark. Lou'cock’s one-way ploughcould not be worked, owing to a portion having been loston the railroad; hut having tested it on former occasions,we recommended it as worthy of notice.
* Since the above remarks Mere written, I have receivedthe subjoined report from Baron Mertens; but from myomti former experience in dynamometrical trials, I ambound to say that I should not draw from a single summertrial any inference even as to the lightness of a plough inordinary work, still less as to its capacity for general work.'When land is hard and dry, cleavage is the principalelement of resistance; the friction is limited, and the cohe-sion, of course, null. Hence our English ploughs whichseemed the lightest M*ere brought in a former trial to adead stand on moist clay. The American ploughs are veryelegant and light, but seem hardly steady enough for
breaking up an English clover-ley. The Belgian mould-board is good, though the framework Mould , be as unsuitedto our M-orkmen as our omti would be to theirs.—P ii. P.
41 London , July 29, 1851.
“ The trial of the following prize ploughs with Bentall’sdynamometer took place on the 25th instant, at Mr. Mechi’sfarm near Kclvedon, Essex, before Colonel Challoner, Mr.Johnson, and myself. Morin’s dynamometer (French ) couldnot be tried, on account of the rain. The trials Mere at-tended M-ith great success, as you will perceive by the fol-loM ing results:—
Ploughs.
Name.
Points ofResistance.
Remarks.
Odeurs - -
527
Land very hard going up hill; coming down in Ball’s plough’sfurroM'.
2. American —
Hale and Spear -
530
Land hard.
Busby - - -
540
Land M-orked well.
Bodin - - -
546£
— — — —
Jenken - - -
550.V
— — — —
G. Belgian - -
Pelstunchc - -
563
No ploughman to use them well.
Hon*ard - - -
560
Hard land.
8. American -
Prouty and Mcars -
579
_ - — —
Talbot - - -
580
— — • — —
Bull - - - -
64G
Very hard ground; very good furrow.
Kansomes and May
659
\ cry hard piece of land.
Baron Mertens D’Ostin. C. B. Challoner. Baron Mertens, for Mr. Johnson.”