HINTS ON PLOUGHING.

Taihape Daily Times, 7 February 1918, Page 3

HINTS ON PLOUGHING.

There is a good deal of difference in'the draught required for a plough set aright and one which is not (says a writer in the Agricultural Gazette). For instance, I recently saw a team of a small horse and a strong cob ploughing a stubble with a balance plougb, and they were going up and down the field at a good pace without turning a hair with sweat. Quite close by was another big team, doing the same kind of work with the same make of plougb, and they were labouring hard and sweating freely

The secret of the first team's success was that the ploughman was an old hand at it, and every part of the plough was bearing its part, while the second ploughman was a young man, and not so practical in his work. His plough was not cutting clean; it was more of a pushing business.

Again another man was trying to plough stubble with a rusty breast, and was making a mess of it. It is always wise to oil or grease the breasts of a plough when not in use; it will generally save a lot of trouble and bother.

I have only yet seen two tractors j ploughing on hire; and here let me say that 1 am sure that the tractor the coming power, and that it is not the fault of the tractor that a bad impression is being produced in some parts It is due to unsuitable ploughs, to inexperienced ploughmen, and, sometimes, to the driver of the tractor. Of the two I have mentioned, one was working all right at the time, but not up to expectations in acreage; the other wos working Indifferently. Not being an engineer, I am not able to criticise the driver or the tractor, but I felt I could ease the draught of the plough a good deal. The plough being used was a double furrow balance plough, well and simply made, quite easy to set, with all screws, etc., quite getatable. The cutting coulters were set very well, and the plough was cutting and turning the furrow all right; but the man in charge was using skim coulters, and had them set quite six inches directly in front of the cutting coulter; and there being quite a bit of grass on

the pasture, the skims were cutting one-and-a-half inches deep to clear themselves. The next thing was that the skimmings were choking; and to counteract that the man changed sides, using the right skims on the left side; and vice versa By so doing he lost the benefit of part of the width skimmed, as he was then skimming a piece each side of the cutting coulter. ■His skimmings also fell into the inter par£ instead of the outer part of the open furrow, thereby making the furrows unstable.

Now, if he set his skims immediately behind the cutting coulters to cut the edge of the furrow as it was rising over the share and on the breast, they would not have been required to cut more than half an inch, and would do better work with a smaller amount of skimmings, while these would fall into the furrow on the outer side, thus 'steadying up the furrow and helping to fill up .the empty space where the furrows lie one against the other. Lastly, it would have meant a matter of two horse-power less to the tractor 1 . It is worth noting, too, that it is always easier in draught to plough a straight furrow than to plough a crooked one, for not only is there | more friction on the plough owing to the curves, but the pull of the horses or tractor would seldom be in a straight line with the plough.