there, as by constant inspection. As equal ploughing consists in turning over equal portions of soil in the same extent of ground, other things being equal, a comparison of the quantity of earth turned over by these two kinds of ploughs can only be made in this way: In a space of 1 square yard turned over by each, taking a furrowslice in both cases at 10 inches in breadth and 7 inches in depth, and taking the specific gravity of soil at 1:48, the weight of earth turned over by the East Lothian plough would be 34 st. 9 lbs., while the Lanarkshire plough would only turn over 29 st. 10 lbs., making a difference of 4 st. 13 lb. in the small area of 1 square yard. In these circumstances, is it fair to say that the horses yoked to the East Lothian plough have done no more work than those yoked to the Lanarkshire, or that the crop for which the land has been ploughed will receive the same quantity of loosened mould to grow in in both such cases? The prohibitory rule against the judges making their inspection during the ploughing has been relaxed in several instances; but, I fear, more from the circumstance of the spectators losing their patience while waiting for the decision, after the excitement of the competition is over, than from regard to the justness of principle. Thus may originate these and other common-sense remarks on the usual mode of conducting ploughing-matches; but the matter which follows will be found more important as affecting the character of good ploughing.

732. 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 seem to be well done, but must be throughout and properly done. To be particular, the award should be given to the plough that produces not only a proper surface finish, but exhibits, along with that, the power to cut and turn over the greatest quantity of soil in the most approved manner. That this combination of qualities has ceased to be the criterion of merit, is now sufficiently apparent to any one who will examine for himself the ploughing which has been rewarded in recent ploughing-matches; and the causes of such awards is this:

733. The introduction of the Lanarkshire plough by Wilkie, gave rise, as is supposed, to the high-crested furrow-slice, fig. 16. It cannot be denied that the ploughs made on this principle produce work on lea land highly satisfactory to the eye of a ploughman, or to that of any person, indeed, who appreciates regularity of form; and as there are many minds who dwell with pleasure on beauty of form, but combine not the idea with usefulness, it is no wonder that work which thus pleases the mind, and satisfies the judgment through the sense of sight only, should become a favourite one. While the crested system of ploughing kept within bounds it was well enough, but, in course of time, the taste for the practice became excessive; and at length, losing sight of the useful, a depraved taste sacrificed utility to beauty, in as far as ploughing is concerned. This taste gradually spread itself over certain districts, and plough-makers vied with each other in producing ploughs that should excel in that particular quality. A keen spirit of emulation amongst ploughmen kept up the taste amongst their own class, and frequently the sons of farmers became successful competitors in the matches, which assisted to give the taste a higher tone. Thus, by degrees, the taste for this mode of ploughing spread wider and wider, until in certain districts it became the prevailing method. At ploughing-matches in those districts, the criterion of good ploughing was generally taken from the appearance of the surface; furrow-slices possessing the highest degree of parallelism, exposing faces of unequal breadth, and, above all, a high crest, carried off the palm of victory. I have seen a quorum of ploughing judges "plodding their weary way" for two hours together over a field, measuring the breadths of faces, and scanning the parallelism of slices, but who never seemed to consider the under-ground work of any importance, in enabling them to decide correctly. Under such regulations, it is not surprising that ploughmen devote their abilities to produce work to satisfy this vitiated taste, and that plough-makers find it their interest to encourage the desire, by exaggerating more and more the construction of those parts of the plough which produce the desired results. Thus have valuable institutions of ploughing-matches, in the districts alluded to, been unwittingly made

to engender an innovation which, though beautiful enough, and, when practised within due bounds, is also useful, has induced a deterioration in really useful and sound ploughing.

734. But it is not yet too late to retrieve what has been lost. Let the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and all local agricultural associations, institute a code of rules to guide the judges of ploughing-matches in delivering their awards. Let these rules direct the land to be thoroughly ploughed to the bottom of the furrow, as well as satisfactorily to the sight. When such rules shall be promulgated from competent authority, we may hope to see ploughing-matches exceed their pristine integrity-doing good to every one concerned in them, and restoring the confidence in them which is at present on the wane, but distrust in which has only arisen from an accidental misdirection of their proper object. Let, in short, Small's plough (fig. 2) be the only one patronised in all cases of ploughing in public competition, and individual farmers and ploughmakers will then find it their interest to use and make no other.

ON PLOUGHING DIFFERENT FORMS OF RIDGES.

735. One might imagine, that as the plough can do nothing else but lay over the furrow-slice, ploughing would not admit of any variety; but a short course of observation will show any student the many forms in which land may be ploughed.

736. The several modes of ploughing have received characteristic appellations, such as gathering up; crown-and-furrow ploughing; casting or yoking or coupling ridges; casting ridges with gore-furrows; cleaving down ridges; cleaving down ridges with gore-furrows; ploughing two-outand-two-in; ploughing in breaks; crossfurrowing; angle-ploughing, ribbing, and drilling; and the preparative operations for all kinds of ploughing is termed feering or striking the ridges.

737. These various modes of plonghing have been contrived to suit the nature of the soil and the season of the year. Clay

soil requires more caution in being ploughed than sandy or gravelly, because of its being more easily injured by rain; and greater caution is required to plough all sorts of land in winter than in summer. The precautions consist in providing facilities for surface-water to flow away. Though the different seasons thus demand their respective kinds of ploughing, some modes are common to all seasons and soils. Attention to the various methods can alone enable the agricultural student to understand which kind is most suitable to the circumstances of the soil, and the peculiar states of the season. To give the best idea of all the modes, from the simplest to the most complicated, let the ground be supposed to be even on the surface.

738. The supposed flat ground, after being subjected to the plough, is left either in ridges or drills, each of which occupy areas of similar breadth. Ridges are composed of furrow-slices (fig. 17) laid beside and parallel to one another, by the going and returning of the plough from one side of the field to the other. The middle part of the ridge receives the name of the crown, the two sides, the flanks,-the divisions between the ridges, the open furrows, and the edges of the furrowslices next the open furrows, the furrowbrows; and the last furrows ploughed in the open furrows are named the mould or hint-end furrows.

739. The ridges are usually made in the direction of N. and S., that the crop growing upon both their sides may receive the light and heat of the solar rays in an equal degree throughout the day; but they, nevertheless, are made to traverse the slope of the ground, whatever its aspect may be, with the view of allowing the surface-water to flow most easily away.

740. Ridges are formed of different breadths, of 10, 12, 15, 16, and 18 feet, in different parts of Scotland; and in England they are formed as narrow as 8 and 6 feet, and even less. These various breadths are occasioned partly by the nature of the soil, and partly by local custom. As regards the soil, clay soil is formed into narrow ridges, to allow the rain to flow off very quickly into the open furrows, and in many parts of England, is ridged at only 10

and 12 feet in width, and in some localities are reduced to ridglets of 5 or 6 feet. In Scotland, even on the strongest land, they are seldom less than 15 feet, in some localities 16, and on light soils 18 feet. In Berwickshire and Roxburghshire, the ridges have for a long period been 15 feet on all classes of soils-being considered the most convenient width for the ordinary manual and implemental operations. In other districts 18 feet are most common. More than half a century ago ridges were made very broad, from 24 to 36 feet, high on the crown-from an idea that an undulated surface affords a larger area for the crop to grow on-and crooked like the letter S, from another mistaken notion that a crook always presents some part of the ridge in a right direction to the sun; which, although it did, removed other parts as far from it. In the Carse of Gowrie such broad crooked ridges may be still seen; but the common practice is to have the ridges of moderate breadth, straight, and pointing to noonday. In many parts of Ireland the land is not ploughed into ridges at all, being made with the spade into narrow stripes called lazy-beds, separated by deep narrow trenches. Where the ploughi is used,

however, narrow ridges of 12 feet are mostly formed. For uniformity of Fig. 18. description, let it be understood that I shall only speak of a ridge of 15 feet in width.

741. The first process in the ridging up of land from the flat surface is the feering it, which is done by placing upright, in the direction of the ridges, three or more poles (fig. 18) 8 feet in length, graduated into feet and half-feet, and each painted at the top of a different colour, such as blue, red, white, to form decided contrasts with one another when set in line, and they should not be green, to be confounded with trees and hedges, nor brown, to be mistaken for the red land.

A FEERING POLE.

direction of re, with the furrow-slice lying towards x. Do the same along the other headland, at the opposite side of the field. Then take a pole and measure off the width of a quarter of a ridge, viz. 3 feet 9 inches from the ditch lip, a to c, and plant a pole at c. With another pole set off the same distance from the ditch, a to d, and plant it there. Then measure the same distance from the ditch, at e to f, and at ƒ look if d has been placed in the line offc; if not, shift the poles, at d and fonly, a little until they are all in a line. Make a mark on the ground with the foot, or set up the plough-staff, fig. 5, at f. Then plant the pole at g, in the line off dc. Before starting to feer, measure off 1 ridge, namely, 18 feet 9 inches, from f to k, and plant a pole at k. Then start with the plough from f to d, where stop with the pole standing between the horses' heads, or else pushed over by the tying of the horses. Then measure with it, at right angles to fc, a line equal to the breadth of 14 ridge, 18 feet 9 inches, towards s, in the line of kl, where plant the pole. In like manner proceed from d to g, where again stop, and measure off 14 ridge, 18 feet 9 inches, from g towards u, still in the line of kl, and plant the pole there. Proceed to the other headridge to the last pole c, and measure off 14 ridge, 18 feet 9 inches, from c to l, and plant the pole at l. From I look towards k, to see if the intermediate poles are in the line of those at 7 and k, if not, shift them till they are so. On coming down cf, obviate any deviation which the plough may have made from the straight line. In the line of ƒ c, the furrowslices of the feering have been omitted, to show more distinctly the setting of the poles. The furrow-slices are shown at m and n.

743. As a means of securing perfect accuracy in measuring off the breadths of ridges at right angles to the feerings, lines at right angles to ƒ c, from d and g, should be set off in the direction of d t and g v, by a cross-table and poles, and marked by a furrow drawn by the plough in each of these lines, before the breadths of the feerings are measured from d and g, along them. Most people do not take the trouble of doing this, and a proficient ploughman renders it the less necessary; but every careful farmer will do it, even at a little sacrifice of time and trouble, to ensure perfect accuracy of work.

744. It is essential to the correct feering of the whole field to have the two first feerings fc and k l, drawn correctly, as an error committed there will be transmitted to the other end of the field; and, to attain this correctness, two persons, the ploughman and the farm-steward, or farmer himself, should set the poles. An experienced ploughman, and a steady pair of horses, should alone be entrusted with the feering of land. Horses accustomed to feering will walk up of their own accord to the pole standing before them within sight.

745. Proceed in this manner to feer the line k l, and so also the line op; but in all the feerings after the first, from f to k, the poles, of course, are set off to the exact breadth of the ridge determined on-in this case 15 feet, as from k to o, to p, s to t, u to v, p to w, in the direction of the arrows. And the reason for setting off c 7 at so much a greater distance than p or pw is, that the half-ridge a h may be ploughed first and without delay, and that the rest of the ridges may be ploughed by half-ridges.

746. The first half-ridge a h is, however, ploughed in a different manner from the other half-ridges; it is ploughed by going round the feering ƒ c until the open furrow comes to a e on the one side and to h i on the other. Were the feering set off the breadth of a half-ridge, 74 feet, in the line of ih, from a to h, instead of the quarter ridge, 3 feet 9 inches, from a to c, the half-ridge a h, would be ploughed with all the furrow-slices turned towards h i, and the plough would have to return back empty, at each furrow-slice, thus losing half its time.

747. The line hi thus becoming the feering along with k l, for ploughing the 2 half-ridges z i and z k, the open furrow is left in the line z y, corresponding to that in the line e a, and between these open furrows is embraced and finished the full ridge of 15 feet e z, having its crown along i h.

748. As the plough completes each feering, the furrow-slices are laid over as at m and n. While one ploughman proceeds in this manner to feer each ridge across the field, the other ploughmen com

mence the ploughing of the land into ridges; and to afford a number of them space for beginning work at the same time, the feering-ploughman should be set to work more than half a day in advance of the rest. In commencing the ploughing of the ridges, each ploughman takes two feerings, and begins by laying the furrow-slices, m and n together, of both the feerings, to form the crowns of two future ridges. One ploughman thus lays together the furrow slices of fc and kl, whilst another is doing the same with those of o p and rw. I have just described how the half-ridge a h is ploughed, and also stated that the rest of the ridges are ploughed in half-ridges. The advantage of ploughing by half-ridges is, that the open furrows are left exactly equidistant from the crowns, whereas, were the ridges

ploughed by going round and round the crown of each ridge, one ridge might be made narrower than the determinate breadth of 15 feet, and another broader.

749. After laying the feering furrowslices so as to make the crowns of the ridges, at f c, k l, op, and rw, the mode of ploughing the ridges from the flat ground is to hie the horses towards you, on reaching the headridges, until all the furrow-slices between each feering are laid over as far as the lines yz, which become the open furrows. This method of ploughing is called gathering up, the disposition of the furrows in which is shown in fig. 20, where a a a embrace two whole ridges and three open furrows, on the right sides of which all the furrow-slices lie one way, from a to b, read

mould; but the above figure is supposed to represent gathered-up ridges in lea ground, and the mould-furrows are shown as correctly formed as the others-which they ought always to be; but in ploughing lea, or grass, the slices scarcely ever measure 10 inches in breadth, and most ploughmen do not regard the mould-furrows as forming a part of the regular ridge, but only a finishing to it.