portunities not only of satisfying his own doubts, but of scattering here and there a few words of useful advice among the more intelligent of our practical farmers."*

(1111.) As the preservation of the fall in a drain on nearly level ground is of great importance in drying it, it may be satisfactory to have a demonstration of the fact that the angle subtended by the plumb-line df, in fig. 183, is equal to the angle of inclination of the drain b a c. The rule is, as radius: a b :: sine of the angle, bac: bc, the height of the fall: Or, multiply the natural sine of the angle bac by the length of the fall a b, and the same result will be obtained.†

66

(1112.) The Romans practised draining both with open and covered drains, the former in clay and the latter in' porous soils. The instructions given by Palladius for the formation of drains may be received with surprise by modern practisers of the art on account of their correctness, and when their great antiquity is held in remembrance. If the land is wet," he says, "it may be dried by drains drawn from every part. Open drains are well known; covered drains are made in this manner: Ditches are made across the field 3 feet deep; afterwards they are filled half-way up with small stones or gravel, and then filled to the surface with the earth that was thrown out. These covered drains are let to an open one to which they descend, so that the water is carried off, and destroys no part of the field. If stones cannot be got, branches, or straw, or any kind of twigs, may be used in their place."‡

28. OF YOKING AND HARNESSING THE PLOUGH, AND OF SWING-TREES.

"No wheels support the diving pointed share;

No groaning ox is doomed to labour there;
No helpmates teach the docile steed his road;
Alike unknown the plough-boy and the goad;
But, unassisted through each toilsome day,

With smiling brow, the ploughman cleaves his way."
BLOOMFIELD.

(1113.) Having inspected the varieties of soil within the sphere of your observation, and been told of the various modes in which the land may be stirred by the plough in winter, it will be proper for you to know the simple and efficient method by which horses are attached to and driven in the plough in Scotland, before the winter-ploughing of the soil is begun, and to enable you to conceive the process more vividly,

Johnston's Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, p. 125-6.

+ See the practical application of this rule on a large scale illustrated in Denton on ModelMapping, p. 35.

Dickson's Husbandry of the Ancients, vol. i.
p. 370.

you will find a pretty accurate representation of a plough at work in Plate XIII.

(1114.) The first thing that will strike you is the extreme simplicity of the whole arrangement of the horses, harness, plough, and man, impressing you with the satisfactory feeling that no part of it can go wrong, and affording you a happy illustration of a complicated arrangement performing complicated work by a simple action. On examining particulars, you will find the collar, better seen in fig. 197, around the horse's neck, serving as a padding to preserve his shoulders from injury while pressing forward to the draught. Embracing a groove in the anterior part of the collar, are the haims, composed of two pieces of wood, curved towards their lower extremities, which are hooked and attached together by means of a small chain, and their upper extremities held tight by means of a leather strap and buckle; and they are moreover provided on each side with an iron hook, to which the object of draught is attached. The horse is yoked to the swing-trees by light chains, called trace-chains, which are linked on one end to the hooks of the haims, and hooked at the other into the eyes of the swing-trees. A back-band of leather put across the back, near the groins of the horse, supports the trace-chains by means of simple hooks. The bridle has blinders, and while the horse is in draught, it is customary to hang the bearing-reins over the tops of the haims. In some parts of the country, there are no blinders; and there is no doubt that many horses so brought up will work very well without them. But in cases of horses of so timid a nature as to be easily frightened at distant objects, and those of so careless a disposition as to look much about them, they are useful in keeping the attention of the horse to his work. You observe there are two horses, the draught of the common plough requiring that number, which are yoked by the trace-chains to the swing-trees, which, on being hooked to the draught-swivel of the bridle of the plough, enable the horses to exercise their united strength on that single point; and being yoked a-breast, they are enabled to exert their united strength much more effectually than if yoked a-trip—that is, one before the other. The two horses are kept together either by a leather-strap, buckled at each end to the bridle-ring, or by a short rein of rope passed from the bridlering to the shoulder of each horse, where it is fastened to the end of the trace-chain with a knot. The strap prevents the horses separating beyond its length, but allows their heads to move about loosely; the short reins prevent them not only separating, but keep their heads steady; and on this account, horses fastened with reins can be turned round more quickly and simultaneously than with the strap. The ploughman guides

the horses with plough-reins, made of rein-rope, which pass from both stilts to the bridle-ring of each horse, along the outermost side of the horse, threading in their way a ring on the back-band and sometimes another on the haims. The reins are looped at the end next the ploughman, and conveniently placed for him under the ends of pieces of hard leather screwed to the foremost end of the helves; or small rings are sometimes put there to fasten the reins to. In many places, only one rein is attached to the near-side horse, and in others the horses are guided solely by the voice. It is perfectly obvious that the ploughman must have a better and quicker command over bis horses with a double than a single rein, and very much more so than by the voice alone.

(1115.) Thus harnessed, each horse has not much weight to bear, nor is its harness costly, though made of the strongest harness leather, as this statement will shew:

When compared with the weight of English harness, these are little more than feather-weight.

(1116.) The collars are differently mounted in the cape in different parts of the country. The use of the cape is to prevent rain falling upon the top of the shoulder, and getting between the collar and shoulder, where, in draught, it would heat and blister the skin. In the Lothians, the cape of the form of fig. 197 is both neat and convenient. In Forfarshire, and somewhat more northerly, it is of the form of fig. 198, which lies flatter and comes farther back than the former; and it is certainly a complete protection from rain; but it makes the collar rather heavy, and its own weight is apt to loosen the sewing of white sheep-skin with which it is attached to the body of the collar. Fig. 199 is a form of cape common in England, which answers no purpose of protection from rain, but rather to catch the wind, and thereby obstruct the progress of the horse. Such a cape is frequently ornamented with flaring-coloured red worsted fringes round the edge, or with large tassels from the corner and middle, or even with bells.

(1117.) With regard to ornamenting farm harness, it never appears, in my estimation, to greater advantage than when quite plain, and of

good materials and excellent workmanship. Brass or plated buckles and brow-bands, worsted rosettes, and broad bands of leather tattooed with filligree sewing, serve only to load and cover the horses when at work, and display a wasteful and vulgar taste in the owner. Whatever temptation there may be in towns to shew off the grandeur of teams, you should shun such display of weakness in the country.

(1118.) The English farmer is not unfrequently recommended by writers on agriculture to adopt the 2-horse plan of working the plough; but the recommendation is never accompanied with such a description of the plough as any farmer could understand it, who had never seen a plough with 2 horses at work; and it is not enough to tell people to adopt this or that plan, without putting it in their power to understand what is recommended. To enable the English farmer, who may never have chanced to see a two-horse plough at work, and to facilitate the understanding of its arrangements by those who may have seen, but not have paid sufficient attention to it, the figure on Plate XIII. has been executed with a regard to shew the just proportions of the various parts of the plough and the harness. The plough has been sufficiently well explained already; and keeping in mind the relative proportions of its parts, those of the horse and harness may be ascertained from this plate; for so practically correct are those proportions, that any one desirous of

mounting a plough in a similar manner may easily do so from this figure before them.

(1119.) Although the reins alone are sufficient to guide the horses in the direction they should go, and I have seen a ploughman both deaf and dumb manage a pair of horses with uncommon dexterity, yet the voice is a ready assistance to the hands, the intonations of which horses obey with celerity, and the modulations of which they understand, whether expressive of displeasure or otherwise. Indeed, in some of the midland counties of Scotland it is no uncommon occurrence to observe the ploughmen guiding their horses, both in the field and on the road, with nothing but the voice; but the practice is not commendable, inasmuch as those accustomed to it fall into the practice of constantly roaring to their horses, which at length become regardless of the noise, especially at the plough; and on the road, the driver has no command over them, in any case even of the slightest emergency, when he is obliged to hurry and seize the bridle of the horse nearest to him at the time; and should one or both horses evince restiveness, when he can only have the command of one by the bridle, he runs the risk of being overcome by the other or by the cart.

(1120.) The language addressed to horses varies as much as even the dialects are observed to do in different parts of the country. One word, Wo, to stop, seems, however, to be in general use. The motions required to be performed by the horse at work, are, to go forward, to go backward, to go from you, and to come towards you, and the cessation of all these, namely, to stop or stand still.

To lessen or cease motion.—The word Wo, is the common one for a cessation of motion; and it is also used to the making any sort of motion slower; and it also means to be careful, or cautious, or not be afraid, when it is pronounced with some duration, such as Wo-o-o. In some parts, as in Forfarshire, Stand has a similar signification; but to stand without any movement at all, the word Still is there employed. In England, Wo is to stop.

To go forward. The name of the leader is usually pronounced, as also the well-known Chuck, Chuck, made with the tongue at the side of the mouth, while impelling the breath.

To step backward.—Back is the only word I can remember to have heard for this motion.

To come towards you.-Hie is used in all the border counties of England and Scotland; Hie here, Come ather, are common in the midland counties of Scotland. In towns one hears frequently Wynd and Vane. In the west of England Wo-e is used.