altering shape, both which are more correspondent to my liking then any other, and are fitte in generall for most places, especially if the plough-beame and share beame were foure inches longer, between the sheath and the plough-tayle, that the shelboard might run more a flote for those ploughes give out too suddainly, and therefore they be the worse to draw, and for no cause els. "In Cambridge-shiere, Huntinton-shiere, Bedfordshiere, and for the most part of Northampton-shiere, their ploughes have but one hale. In Leistershiere, Lankishiere, Yorkshiere, Lincolnshiere, and Notinghamshiere they have two, for all other countries unnamed, there is none of them but plow with some of these ploughs before mentioned, neither will I stande too strictly upon their fashion, sith there is no country but custome or experience hath instructed them to make choice of what is most availeable, and he that will live in any country may by free charter learne of his neighbors, and howsoever any plough be made or fashioned, so it be well tempered, it may the better be suffered."

This sensible old writer saw the advantages, which have since become still more evident, of studying the nature of the land, and adopting just that form of plough which seemed to suit it best. But it was not Fitzherbert, nor Tull, nor other early writers, that suggested the form of plough which has since been found so useful, and has been brought to so high a degree of perfection. By some means or other an improved Dutch plough was introduced into the north of England, and became the model for our ploughmakers. A patent was obtained in the year 1730 for a plough made at Rotherham, in Yorkshire, which was the most perfect implement that had yet appeared, and is well known to this day as the Rotherham plough. From this time the progress of improvement was rapid. A man in humble life had the honour of taking the first step in that career of invention and advancement, which from the time of the Rotherham plough to the present

JAMES SMALL, THE PLOUGH-MAKER.

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hour, has successively contributed to the perfecting of this, the most valuable of all tools.

JAMES SMALL was the son of a farmer in the county of Berwick, in Scotland, and early learned from his father all the different branches of agricultural labour. As he grew older, he was apprenticed to a carpenter and ploughmaker, at Hutton, in the same county. After his apprenticeship he came to England, and worked with a Mr. Robinson of Doncaster, in making wagons and other wheel carriages. He appears to have remained about five years in England, but it was not until his return to his native country that he made the improvements in the plough for which his name is celebrated. He settled at Black Adder Mount, in Berwickshire, in the year 1763, under the patronage of John Renton, Esq., of Black Adder. He there established a manufactory of ploughs and other farming tools, and made many experiments on the value of the implements by trying them on some land which he there occupied. At that time the old Scotch plough was chiefly in use throughout Berwickshire. It was drawn by a team consisting of one pair of horses, and four, or sometimes six oxen. The smallest number was a pair of horses, and a pair of oxen attended by a driver. Small endeavoured to make an implement that should be stronger, and at the same time lighter, and easier of draught, than that plough ; and he was remarkably successful. A plough was constructed by him, which completely astonished all who had been accustomed to the heavy and clumsy ploughs of the country; and so much more easy was it to work with Small's plough than with any previous ones, that many ploughmen in Berwickshire offered to supply the woodwork if their masters would supply the remaining parts, and pay the other charges of the implement. Ă great secret of Small's success in what he undertook appears to have been a rule which he laid down for himself, that whatever he did should be done well and completely, whatever pains and trouble it might cost him to

accomplish it. So anxious was he on this point, that when he had reason to doubt the quality of an article produced at his manufactory, he would break it to pieces and suffer the loss, rather than send out a plough or other implement which was not likely to give perfect satisfaction.

So great was the zeal of this ingenious man to promote improvements in agriculture, that he is said to have sacrificed his ease, his health, and his worldly interests, to the cause. He died in the year 1793, in the fifty-third year of his age. The value of his improvements will best appear as we consider the different parts of the plough.

Since Small's time a great number of valuable improvements have been made in the plough, and these are constantly going on, so that we may expect a high degree of excellence to be at last attained.

The essential parts of a plough are as follow:

The body of the plough consists of a frame, to which all the parts of a plough must be attached.

This part of the plough was formerly made of wood : it was then covered in the parts, subject to the greatest

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friction, with iron; and finally, the whole of it was made of cast-iron. The advantages of this were chiefly the greater durability of the frame; the ease with which the

ESSENTIAL PARTS OF A PLOUGH.

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other parts of the plough could be screwed to it, or unscrewed, and the certainty that the frame could always be procured of exactly the same size and shape. This last particular is of much consequence, for with wooden ploughs it is very difficult to get two that will work exactly alike, even if made by the same person. One may

work easily and well, and the other be very inferior, although to the eye there appear no difference between the two. The old wooden plough, however, is still in use in many parts of the country.

The lower part of this frame is called the sole of the plough, and to the front part of it is attached the share, which is a sharp instrument cutting in a horizontal direction the slice of earth which is to be turned over. The share gradually widens from the point to what is called the fin. It was formerly made of wrought iron, but cast-iron shares are now generally employed. At first these were found to wear away too fast on the under side, thus becoming blunt and inefficient. This was remedied in a very ingenious way: the under part of the share was case-hardened to the thickness of onesixteenth, or one-eighth of an inch; this hardened surface would not, of course, wear away so quickly as the rest, and thus by the natural wear of the upper part of

PLOUGH-SHARES.

the share constantly going on, a sharp edge was always produced on the under side. The ploughman using this share is not, therefore, hindered with the frequent sharpenings necessary for wrought-iron shares.

Another important part of the plough is the mouldboard. This rises very gradually from the fin in an oblique position, either to the right or left: its use is to push aside and turn over the slice of earth just cut, so as to leave a regular furrow wherever the plough has passed. Originally this part of the plough was, agreeably to its name, a mould-board, defended with plates of iron, but it is now made wholly of cast-iron. Small was a great improver of this part of the plough, and constructed it on true mechanical principles. He invented a plan for discovering the true shape which ought to be given to the mould-board by making it of soft wood, and then carefully observing, during many trials, the parts most liable to pressure or to friction; this gave him hints for the construction of his cast-iron mould-board, which has a regular curve or twist, well adapting it for turning over and placing the furrowslice exactly in the right position, while it also lessens friction in the work. It was a happy circumstance that just at that time the founding of cast-iron was getting very general; Small took advantage of it, and framing

a mould-board, &c., of cast-iron, he thus obtained patterns, according to which any number of similar forms might be constructed.