_Resp._ Any Weather, except the Ground be so dry and hard that the
Plough cannot enter it; but it is very proper to be done, when the
Earth is so wet, that by no means it ought to be plowed with any other
Plough; for it never can be too moist for this, unless the Cattle which
draw it be mired; because, tho’ all the Cattle should not go in the
Furrow, yet their Treadings are cut so small by the Coulters, that the
Earth is not kept from dissolving, as when turned off whole in common
Tillage. ’Tis observed, that the Incisions made by the Coulters on
swerdy Land, will not heal, or so close up, but that they will open
again by the next Plowing, though it be a great while after. A Farmer
who uses this Plough, may till in all Weathers and all Seasons of
the Year, either in fallowing with this, which is best in wet, or in
stirring with the common ones, which must be done in dry Weather; and
when the Ground is broken up with this, it may be stirred in the driest
Weather that can be, without the Danger of tearing (or spaulting) up of
the under _Stratum_ along with the Staple, because this is all broken
before, and then no more can rise with it; as it does to the Ruin of
the Soil, when in common Tillage they go deeper the Second time than
the First: Also, if there be a Necessity of stirring some sort of Land
when it is wet, it ought either to be done with this Plough, or else
with a common one drawn by a single Row of Cattle treading all in the
Furrow; for tho’ some Land be very fine, yet, when plowed by a double
Row of Cattle in wet Weather, it will be made into large Pieces by the
Treading, and perhaps not dissolve again in a long time: Therefore it
is better to be prevented.
Farm. _I perceive this Plough lays the Foundation for all good
Husbandry; and there can be no other way to bring Land into perfect
Tilth in so short a Time, or with so little Expence. And I am
convinc’d, that no Farmer ought to be without it, who desires to be
free from the Danger of his Land being ever out of Tilth: But I have
heard it objected, that it is harder to draw than the common Ploughs;
and that its Beam being longer, upon account of the Four Coulters, it
lies farther behind, and comes harder after the Horses._
_Resp._ I must confess, there is something in that Objection; for this
Plough, being something longer, may be a little the harder Draught;
and also its Weight and Strength must bear a Proportion to the Length
of it. But this small Increase of the Draught would have been a much
stronger (if not a fatal) Objection, had that Custom been general, of
Horses drawing by their Tails, as ’tis said to have been formerly in
some Places; for then, perhaps, a sufficient Strength of Horses could
not be applied to the Plough. But in Countries where Traces are in
Use, every Horse of the Team may draw the Plough equally, and then
there will be no other Inconvenience, besides the adding one Horse,
or keeping a stronger Team: And he cannot be wise, who would lose the
Profit of his Land, for the Odds of sometimes adding a Horse to his
Plough. And I am very certain, that this Plough requires a much less
Strength of Cattle to draw it in moist Weather, which is the most
proper to use it in, than to draw a common Plough in the same Ground,
and at the same Depth, in dry Weather; and can seldom be used safely
in any other. And the Vulgar, who have always a wrong Cause ready at
hand to apply to every thing, impute that Draught to the Fashion of the
Plough, which ought to be imputed to its going deeper; and this great
Depth at which ’tis capable of plowing, _viz._ Two Spit deep, is one
extraordinary Benefit of it, tho’ it may, on Occasion, go as shallow as
any.
The Draught is not so much increased by adding Three Coulters, as may
be imagined; for when the Ground is moist, the Incisions are easily
made by the Edges; and when they are cut small, the Furrows rise much
more easily upon the Share and Earth-Board, than if whole.
Farm. _If this Plough be so beneficial, having so many Advantages, and
only the Two Inconveniencies, one of requiring a little more Strength
to draw it, and the other its being unfit for dry hard Ground, I wonder
why it is not become more common?_
_Resp._ It has been used with very great Success for these several
Years last past, but never like to be common, unless it be described in
a more geometrical Manner, than any Plough has hitherto been; for the
Plough-wrights find it difficult enough to make a common Plough with
one Coulter to perform as it ought, for want of the necessary Rules of
their Art. It is upon this Account that the Two-coulter’d Ploughs are
used in few Places, though they have been found of excellent Use, and
have been formerly common: But, alas! when the Makers, who by their
diligent Study and much Practice had attained the Perfection of their
Art, died for want of learning to write their Rules mathematically, and
shew how the mechanical Powers were applicable to them, the Art was in
a Manner lost, at the Death of those Artists; and then the unskilful
Plough-wrights, destitute of the true Rules, were not able to make a
Two-coulter’d Plough to perform well, and then it was left off. Very
lately ’tis revived, since the Three and Four-coulter’d ones have been
used; from whence some have made a Shift to take the Rules of placing
Two Coulters into a Plough, and they begin to be common again; and, no
doubt, will cease again as soon as the Rules are forgot.
[Illustration: _Page 291_
_Plate. I._
_B.Cole. Delin. et Sculp._]
’Tis strange that no Author should have written fully of the Fabric
of Ploughs! Men of the greatest Learning have spent their Time in
contriving Instruments to measure the immense Distance of the Stars,
and in finding out the Dimensions, and even Weight, of the Planets:
They think it more eligible to study the Art of plowing the Sea with
Ships, than of tilling the Land with Ploughs; they bestow the utmost of
their Skill, learnedly, to pervert the natural Use of all the Elements
for Destruction of their own Species, by the bloody Art of War. Some
waste their whole Lives in studying how to arm Death with new Engines
of Horror, and inventing an infinite Variety of Slaughter; but think it
beneath Men of Learning (who only are capable of doing it) to employ
their learned Labours in the Invention of new (or even improving the
old) Instruments for increasing of Bread.
The easiest Method of perpetuating the Use of the many coulter’d
Ploughs, and other newly-invented Instruments of Husbandry, is by
Models, _i. e._ the Things themselves in little; and these may be all
portable even in a Man’s Pocket: Every Part must be fully described,
with the true Dimensions, and the mathematical Reasons, on which their
Contrivance is founded. Directions also for using them must be given
at the same time that their Manner of making is described. In some,
the very Horses which draw must be represented, to shew the manner of
fixing the Horses, and the Traces: Cautions against all the Errors that
may happen by the want of Experience in the Makers or Users, must be
given.
When this is done, and the Rules put into a Method, the new
Hoeing-Husbandry, in all its Branches, will be much more easy and
certain than the old; because there are no mathematical Rules extant
in any Method; and a Man may practise the old random Husbandry all his
Life, without attaining so much Certainty in Agriculture as may be
learned in a few Hours from such a Treatise.
The Rules, indeed, require much Labour, Study, and Experience, to
compose them; but when finish’d, will be most easy to practise: Like
the Rules for measuring Timber; their Use is, at first Sight, easy
to every Carpenter, and to most Artificers who work in Wood; but no
illiterate Person is able to compose those Rules, or to measure Timber
without them.