SUGGESTIONS ON PLOUGHING.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 596, 16 March 1876, Page 3

SUGGESTIONS ON P LOUGHING.

Teams drawing loads on the roads get a breathing spell on the descending ground, while in ploughing the draft is the same from morning till night There is a oerfcain nuinbor of pounds that a team can draw day after day and not worry them, but if more be added, even »j little as 15 or 20 pounds, they walk unsteadily, fr<% and soon tire. No amount of feeding will keep them in condition. I have many ploughs in use on which it has been an easy mutter to decrease the draft 25 pound?, and if men had been draw* ing them instead of horse? it would have been done. It must be plain to the farmer that every pound taken off from tho draft of hi* plough u •o much gain for his horses. 'It may be done in this way : — For any toil exoept sand or gravel use a steel plough. Their cost is but little more, and their druff. enougli lets to p ay the difference in plouglnug 20 acres. In ploughing sod the coulter does a groat dual of the work, and •hould be kept sharp by forging at the blacksmith's and grinding every day if necessary. Of course it will wear the sooner, "bat new coulters are cheaper than new teamt. Set the coulter in line with the plough, the edge square in t front, with an angle of" 45 deg. from the point to -where it is attached to the beam. When the share gets worn out it is poor economy to use it any longer, but replaoe it with a new one. Let the traces be as short as will allow the horses to walk without hitting their heels against the whiffletreea, and hare just preisure enough of the wheels on the ground to make the plough run steady. If the handles crowd continually one way, the draft is sot right ; and if the plough is a good orio it can be easily remedied at the clevis. To prevent the horses stepping over the trace in turning, fasten a weight of about threefourths of a pound on the outside of each swingle* tree — that is, in the right end when you turn to the left, and vice versa. Every farmer knows that horses are susceptible to kindness and equally so to unkindness. I hare seen horses that were working steadily made reeking with sweat in a short time by a sharp word or a jerk on the bit, Let your norses do their work as you do yours — as easily as possible— -and be as willing to overlook their mistakes as you would the mistakes of human beings. — Practical Farma .