the Northern, Eastern, Middle, and Western States, different ploughs are vaunted for their excellence. It has been observed as a singular circumstance, that to the celebrated author of the Declaration of Independence the United States should be also indebted for the first theory of the plough formed on mathematical principles. President Jefferson's letter to Sir John Sinclair, president of the British Board of Agriculture, addressed in 1798, is published in the Transactions of the Am. Philosophical Society, vol. iv. p. 314. It describes the mould-board, and the principles upon which it is properly constructed. (See American Farmer, vol. ii. p. 185, and Domestic Encyclopedia, vol. iii. p. 113.)

In England the most complete set of experiments yet made to ascertain the particular merits of different ploughs, are those instituted by Mr. Pusey, president of the Royal Agricultural Society, and described by him in the 3d No. of the Journal of that Society. A condensed view of the objects and results of these experiments may be found in the Cultivator, (vol. viii. p. 10) together with the results obtained with American ploughs at the Worcester ploughing match in 1840.

The points embraced in the English experi

ments were:

1. The comparative lightness in draught, of wheel and swing ploughs.

2. The lightest plough absolutely, of whatever kind.

3. The effect of different soils upon the qualities, and chiefly on the draught of the plough. 4. The comparative tenacity of different soils.

5. The power of two horses to plough the strongest or clay soil.

Ten ploughs, embracing some from the most celebrated makers in England, the highly famed Scotch swing plough, and several of those in common use in the different districts of the kingdom, were selected by Mr. Pusey for his experiments, and he was aided by the presence and advice of some of the most distinguished agriculturists in the country. The ploughs were worked by skilful ploughmen; and, as much interest was attached to the experiment on the Scotch ploughs, a Clydesdale span of horses and a ploughman accustomed to the plough were sent up by Lord Moreton to manage that part of the trial. The Scotch plough has obtained considerable celebrity from the strong praise bestowed upon it by Mr. Loudon, who declares the improved Scotch plough to be superior to any similar implement known in England. They are constructed on the principles laid down by Mr. Jefferson, in his celebrated Report on the true shape of the mould-board, addressed to the French Institute, which, he showed from mathematical data, should be in the form of a gentle hollow curve; other ploughs constructed more full and short, not raising the earth gradually like a wave, but throwing it over at once. In condensing Mr. Pusey's experiments, we shall select, as sufficient for the present purpose, from the list given by him, three ploughs-1st, the improved Scotch plough made by Fergu

son, and entirely of iron-2d, a one-wheeled plough of wood, with an iron breast, by Mr. Hart, but commonly known as the improved Berkshire plough; and 3d, an old-fashioned plough made of wood, and such as is in general use in many parts of England, where it is called the old Berkshire plough. Some previous ex. periments had convinced Mr. Pasey that the Hart plough was of easy draught, and the ones now instituted showed that his impressions were correct.

The Clydesdale horses were much admired in their work; and it was the opinion of the bystanders that such land, usually worked with four horses in line, might be ploughed with two such horses abreast; though it was said it would cost as much to keep two horses in that condition, as to support the four in their usual working state. On this ground, where the horses had a firm footing, they worked with perfect ease.

In summing up the trials, Mr. Pusey remarks that the plough requiring the least draught was Hart's, though in the last trial it was beat by Ransome's two-wheel plough; and that of all modern ploughs the Scotch swing plough was the heaviest, "out of the question on a light soil, and by no means the best on a heavy one." The following table shows the average draught of all the ploughs on the several soils in which the experiments were made: Trial 1. Sandy loam

2. Clay loam 3. Loamy sand 4. Strong loam 5. Clay loam

6. Moory soil

17 stone. 474 66

A drawing of Hart's improved Berkshire one-wheel plough is given in the Cultivator, (vol. viii. p. 10.)

The trials at the Worcester ploughing match in 1840, were made to determine the award of two premiums offered by the Massachusetts Agricultural Society, of $100, and $75, for the best ploughs, one for lapping furrows and the other for laying them flat. The following remarks by the reporting committee will enable the reader to understand the experiments, whilst the list of ploughs will show the number of inventors and improvers whose implements have acquired most celebrity in the eastern portion of the United States.

The power required to turn over a given quantity of earth by a plough is a very important consideration. This power can be measured with great accuracy; greater than many of the committee supposed, before they witnessed the operation. The dynamometer, inserted between the plough-beam and the chain, measures with great accuracy the strength exerted by the team. Suppose the strength applied be the same that would be required to raise 336 lbs. over a single pulley; suppose also that the depth of the furrow is 64 inches with a width of 13 inches. Multiply 13 by 6, and you will have 84 with a fraction. Now, if 336 lbs. of power will take up and turn over 84 inches of earth, then 112 lbs. will turn 28 inches. Tried in this way, the ploughs exhibited showed the following results. The power in each case is 112 lbs.

The terms used in this experiment are different from those adopted in the English one; but those who choose may easily compare them with each other by remembering that 112 lbs. is 8 stone, and making the furrow-slice to correspond, which in the American experiment was 84 inches, and in the English one 45; or 6 by 13, to 5 by 9. When this is done, the experiments will be found to correspond remarkably well, and the general results of both may be considered as establishing many important truths, some of which have been already pointed out. Thus it will be seen that in the same soil, and under the same circumstances, one plough will work 100 per cent. easier than another, or that one horse will perform the work of two, or two that of four, with the same ease. Could horses speak, they would doubtless direct a vote of thanks to the men who have invented, and the farmers who use, implements by which one-half of the severest labour the horse performs is done away. We very much question whether our farm-horses on our heavy wheat lands do not often perform much more severe labour than the highest rate named by Mr. Pusey (52 stone, or 728 lbs.), as we have seen them day after day showing more exertion and evident distress in ploughing than when drawing a ton a day over hard roads. Whatever may be the obduracy or tenacity of the soil, or the toughness of the sward; only one pair of horses is used, where, under the same circumstances, four would be used abroad, and the question is

never asked whether the plough is of a construction so defective as to require 5 cwt. to move it, or whether it works with ease, with a force of 2 cwt. applied. Mr. Pusey estimated the fair draught of the Clydesdale horse at 168 lbs. or 12 stone, and that of a common English farm-horse at 112 lbs. or 8 stone.

At a fair held by the New York Agricultural Society, at Syracuse, in 1841, the first of the regular premiums, $30, was awarded to the plough made by Howard Delano of Mottsville, the second premium of $20 to E. G. Holliday, for his plough, favourably known as the Laughlin plough. The Wisconsin and other ploughs attracted considerable notice; but the double mould-board plough of Barnaby and Mooers, from the excellence and novelty of its construction, the facility with which it would operate on side hills as well as on level land, and its ease of draught, rendered it deservedly a favourite implement, and the honorary premium was deemed well awarded. It was supposed by many very good judges of ploughing, that the resistance offered by the land-side share would increase the draught sensibly, but the result showed that such was not the case.

The trial of ploughs which took place under the direction of a committee of the American Institute, at New York, was very well conducted; and although the number of ploughs on the ground was not as great as at Syracuse, the trials with the dynamometer were more satisfactory. It is to be regretted that some of the favourite Massachusetts ploughs had not been present for competition, as a full investigation and understanding of the matter requires repeated and careful comparison of ploughs ir. the same soils, and as near as possible under the same circumstances. We believe that such will hereafter be the case. The manner in which the report of the trials of ploughs last year at Worcester was presented, renders a comparison of the actual draught used there and at New York, difficult; but as the mode was adopted at New York that English experimenters have used, a comparison between the ploughs of England and Scotland, and those of this country, is more easily made. The following table, which we find prepared at our

Great Britain, are rapidly coming into use in the United States, where various sizes are made, the largest being a heavy tug for four horses, whilst the smallest may be worked by two mules or one stout horse. Those made by Prouty and Mears are very efficient implements, the prices varying from $8 for the single horse, and $10 to $12 for the larger sizes. A more simple and cheaper subsoil plough, which has proved very successful on trial, has lately been made in the city of New York, adapted to one or more horses. These consist of a common plough from which all the upper portion of the mould-board has been cut away, so as to leave the mere skeleton, which strikes deep and stirs up the subsoil very effectually. The price of these varies from $4 to $6, according to size, &c. They may be had in New York at most of the agricultural implement stores, and in Philadelphia, of E. Chandler, agricultural implement maker, 196 Market street. See SUBSOIL PLOUGHING.

PLOUGHING. The art of turning over the soil by means of the plough. There are various kinds of ploughing. Trench ploughing is effected by the plough passing twice along the same furrow: the first time for the purpose of throwing the surface soil into the bottom of the furrow, and the second time for raising a furrow-slice from under that which had been already turned over, and raising it up, &c., turning it upon the first furrow-slice, by means of which the surface soil is entirely buried, and a stratum of subsoil laid over it: thus effecting in the field what trenching with the spade does in the garden. Trench ploughing can only be employed with advantage where the subsoil is naturally dry and of good quality, or where it has been rendered so by draining and subsoil ploughing; for bad subsoil brought to the surface, unless considerably altered in composition and texture, would be unfit for receiving seeds or plants.

To excel in the art of ploughing, the ploughman should take a pleasure in his work, and not rest satisfied till he can make his furrows in a straight line, and lay the slices as much as possible at the same angle from the bottom of the furrow. He should open his first furrow in a uniform manner, and proceed with regularity of width and depth of the furrow-slice, and "shut up" clean at last.

Ploughing matches, which of late years have been so general, have given a very increased interest to ploughmen and ploughboys. The face of the country is in many parts strikingly improved by the change which sound ploughing has effected, and much of this may be traced to the lively interest which has been paid to this part of tillage by agricultural societies and by practical farmers. I never knew a ploughing-match meeting established in any rural district without very beneficial effects being produced on the character of the peasantry. It never fails to elevate the ploughman in his own opinion; it induces him to strive to excel in his honourable vocation, to please his employer, and to stand well in the estimation of his richer neighbours. The very assemblage of the neighbouring farmers and gentry to wit

ness the trial of skill, brings out all the latent pride of the roughest ploughman. The flowers in his horses' bridles, the network on their ears, the new, gay-coloured tape with which their manes and tails are braided, betray the little feelings of honest pride in the ploughman's bosom. When at a recent meeting I noticed the air of triumph with which the victor in the field of Langley, in Buckinghamshire, after having had the queen's prize of five guineas awarded to him, marched his sleek, well-fed plough-horses off the field, with a sprig of laurel in their bridles, I could not but admit that the effect of that meeting would be felt, not only amongst the contending ploughmen there assembled, but through the adjoining hundreds. The triumph, too, was not confined to the ploughman; his master, nay, his parish, shared in the honour; and I will engage that many an honest ploughman, between one year's meeting and the next, as he ploughs "his acre," thinks of the field of meeting, and of the best means of securing a prize. Such meetings, moreover, teach even the most ignorant the importance of such affairs; that there is a great difference in the neatness, style, and profit to the farmer where the ploughmen execute their work properly; and they are pretty sure to convince even the most listless that there is more skill required in a ploughman than many persons would readily believe.

I believe it admits of no doubt, says Mr. Stephens, that, since the institution of ploughing matches throughout the country, the character of our farm-servants as ploughmen has risen to considerable celebrity, not but that individual ploughmen could have been found before the practice of matches existed as dexterous as any of the present day, but the general diffusion of good ploughing must be obvious to every one who has been in the habit of observing the ploughed surface of the country. This improvement is not to be ascribed to the institution of ploughing matches alone, because superior construction of implements, better kept, better matched, and superior races of horses, and superior judgment and taste in field labour and in the farmer himself, are too important elements in influencing the conduct of ploughmen, to be overlooked in a consideration of this question.

But be the primary motive for improvement in the most important branch of field labour as it may, there cannot be a doubt that a properly regulated emulation amongst workmen of any class, proves a strong incentive to the production of superior workmanship, and the more generally the inducement is extended, the improvement arising from it may be expected to be the more generally diffused; and on this account the plough medals of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, being open for competition to all parts of Scotland every year, have perhaps excited a spirit of emulation among ploughmen, by rewarding those who excel, beyond any thing to be seen in any other country. Wherever 15 ploughs can be gathered together for competition at any time and place, there the ploughman who obtains the first premium offered by those interested in the

exhibition, is entitled to receive, over and above, the Society's plough medal of silver, bearing a suitable inscription, with the gainer's name. About 40 applications are made for the medals every year, so that at least 600 ploughmen annually compete for them; but the actual number far exceeds that number; as, in many instances, matches comprehend from 40 to 70 ploughs, instead of the minimum number of 15. The matches are usually occasioned by the welcome which his neighbours are desirous of giving an incoming tenant to his farm, and its heartiness is shown in the extent of the assistance which they give him in ploughing a field or fields at a time when he has not yet collected a working stock sufficient for the purpose.

Ploughing matches are generally very fairly conducted in Scotland. They usually take place on lea ground, the ploughing of which is considered the best test of a ploughman's skill, though I hold that drilling is much more difficult to execute correctly. The best part of the field is usually selected for the purpose, if there be such, and the same extent of ground, usually from 2 to 4 ridges, according to the length, is allotted to each portion of ground to be ploughed. A pin, bearing a number, is pushed into the ground at the end of each lot, of which there are as many marked off as there are ploughs entered in the competition. Numbers corresponding to those on the pins are drawn by the competing ploughmen, who take possession of the lots as they are drawn. Ample time is allowed to finish the lot, and in this part of the arrangements I am of opinion that too much time is usually allowed, to the annoyance of the spectators. Although shortness of time in executing the same extent of work is not to be compared to excellency of execution, yet it should enter as an important element into the decision of the question of excellence. Every competitor is obliged to feer his own lot, guide his own horses, and do every other thing connected with the work, such as assorting his horses, and trimming his plough-irons, without the least assistance.

The judges, who have been brought from a distance, and have no personal interest in the exhibition, are requested to inspect the ground after all the ploughs have been removed, having been kept away from the scene during the time the ploughs were engaged.

The primary objects of the institution of ploughing matches must have been to produce the best examples of ploughmanship; and by the best must be understood that kind of ploughing which shall not only appear to be well done, but must be thoroughly and essentially well done. In other words, the award should be given to the plough that produces not only work of a proper surface finish, but which will exhibit, along with the first, the property having turned up the greatest quantity of soil and in the best manner. (Book of the Farm.)

The following will be found a useful table, showing the distance travelled by a horse in ploughing or scarifying an acre of land; also the quantity of land worked in a day, at the rate of 16 and 18 miles per day of 9 hours.

PLUM (Prunus, from prune, its Greek name) A genus of trees and shrubs, several of which are indigenous to Britain. Having already noticed the bird cherry (P. padus), the wild cherry tree (P. cerasus), the wild bullace tree (P. insititia), the black thorn or sloe (P. spinosa),