The plough has been in use from the very earliest ages, and has been
but little altered for many centuries; it is drawn by horses attached
to the chain A at the end of the “beam,” and guided by a man holding
the “stilts” or handles B B, the coulter, C, cuts a perpendicular
slice in the ground, and the “share” or “slade,” D, following, cuts
horizontally, so as to separate a long piece of earth which the
breast or mould-board E, placed obliquely, turns over on one side;
the plough returning at regular distances, successive cuttings are
thus laid side by side, forming narrow ridges; F is an additional
coulter called the “skim-coulter,” for removing the surface of the
earth, and is only occasionally used.
There are a great many kinds of ploughs, each suitable to the kind of
soil to be ploughed, whether light and dry or heavy and moist.