Ploughing Machinery on the Farm - A Collection of Articles on the Operation and Maintenance of Ploughs

By Lewis Press

This antique book contains a collection of articles on the operation and maintenance of ploughs. It contains a wealth of timeless and practical information that will be of much interest to the farmer. Complete with detailed illustrations and interesting insights, this text makes for a worthy addition to agricultural libraries - and will be of considerable value to collectors of antiquarian farming literature. The articles of this compendium include: 'Farm Implements'; 'Farm Machinery'; 'Farm Machinery and Tractors'; 'Repairing Farm Machinery'; and 'The Operation, Care, and Repair of Farm Machinery'. We are proud to republish this vintage text, now complete with a new introduction on farming.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lewis Press
• Release date: Aug 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781528763837

Book preview

PLOUGHING

Land is ploughed to prepare it for the next crop. The farmer ploughs whereas the gardener digs. Both operations turn the top soil upside down, exposing a large surface to the sun, rain and air. Weeds and the remains of the last crop are buried and thus encouraged to decay and form humus. Ploughing also serves to bury such bulky manures as dung and shoddy. Ploughed land drains better than unploughed land, for the surface water can run away down the furrows into the ditches.

Ploughing is highly skilled work, and its quality largely depends upon the way in which the plough is adjusted.

The depth of ploughing varies with the depth of workable soil. If there is rock only a few inches below the surface the ploughing will be shallow (3 or 4 inches, perhaps), whereas in a deep soil the ploughing will be deep (up to 14 inches or so). A usual depth is 7 inches.

The depth also depends upon the crop that is to be sown next. For example, a farmer ploughs more deeply for mangels, potatoes and sugar beet than he does for corn or turnips. Autumn ploughing is generally deeper than spring ploughing.

Most ploughs turn the furrows to the ploughman’s right. These are called run-round ploughs because they go round and round the piece of land being ploughed: up one side and down the other. This means that half the furrow slices slope one way and the other half slope the other way. (See the opposite page.) The ploughed field has alternate ridges and open furrows. The ridge is made by two furrow slices leaning against each other. The open furrow is caused by two furrow slices being turned away from each other. Sometimes a ridge is called an opening, and an open furrow is called a finish, because they are the first and last operations of the plough.

In good ploughing

1 all the land is turned over (inverted);

2 all the vegetation and manure (if any) is buried and out of sight;

3 the depth is the same throughout;

4 the furrows are straight, and, if an unbroken furrow (see page 7) is being turned, the crests are even;

5 the field is ploughed as closely to the hedges as possible. The hedges should be no wider than is necessary, for if they are wide and straggling they waste the land that ought to be carrying a crop.

When a run-round plough has been used the field will look like this:

SECTION ACROSS THE FIELD

PLAN OF FIELD

The width of the lands, and therefore the distance between the open furrows, will be less on heavy (clay) land than on light land. The arched lands and the furrows help to keep the soil drained. In some grass fields on very heavy soils narrow steeply curved lands are to be found. These show how the field was ploughed before it was laid down to grass.

There are a few types of ploughs, however (see pictures Nos. 6 and 7), that do not run round their work, but turn every furrow alongside the previous one. These are called one-way ploughs, and when the field is finished all the furrow slices slope one way.

1. SINGLE FURROW HORSE PLOUGH. The horses are attached to the hook at the front of the plough by means of their traces and whipple-trees. Whipple-trees are seen in picture No. 8. As the plough is drawn forward it cuts a slice of soil, turns this slice over, and lays it against the previous one. The action of the plough can be seen on the next page. In cutting out this slice the coulter makes the vertical cut, the share makes the horizontal cut, and the breast turns the slice over and lays it in place. The smaller of the two wheels is the land wheel and rides on the unploughed land. The larger one rides in the furrow and is therefore at a lower level than the land wheel. In the photograph, however, the two are on the same level, as they might be when the plough is being drawn from one field to another. The depth of the ploughing can be regulated by altering the height of the wheels. By raising the land wheel the plough is dropped further into the ground and a deeper furrow is ploughed. The width of the furrow slice can be increased by sliding the furrow wheel outwards, away from the beam.

The share gets blunt from use, especially in stony soil. It is therefore detachable and can be renewed. The coulter on this plough is a knife coulter. It can be taken off and sharpened. Sometimes a skim coulter is used, attached to the beam close to the coulter. See picture No. 4.

In medium soil (neither sand nor clay) a plough cutting a slice 9 inches wide and 7 inches deep can be drawn by two horses. On light and, double furrow horse ploughs are often used. Ploughing on heavy clay land is much harder work and needs a team of three or four horses or a tractor. Powerful tractors can manage as many as five or six or more furrows at a time, using multi-furrow ploughs.

2 and 3. TYPES OF PLOUGHING. The mould boards invert the furrow slices. In the upper picture these are not broken up as much as those in the lower picture. This is because the breasts of the two ploughs are of different shapes. The upper plough has long breasts with the greater part of their length convex to the ploughing. It leaves an unbroken furrow. It is a lea plough. The lower plough has shorter breasts, concave to the ploughing. It leaves a broken furrow. It is called a digger plough. The work of a lea plough is like autumn digging in the garden. The soil is turned over but not broken up. A digger plough leaves the land like a garden dug in the spring ready for planting, with the soil broken up into crumbs.

4. PART OF A TRACTOR PLOUGH. The breast and share are much as they are in the previous pictures, but the coulter is a disc coulter instead of a knife coulter. See page 6. This disc has a sharp cutting edge and revolves as the plough moves forward. It thus wears evenly all round and keeps itself sharp. Touching one edge of the disc coulter is a skim coulter. This is attached when grassland is being ploughed. It trims off one of the upper corners of the furrow slice and so prevents the grass from growing up between one furrow and the next. At the rear of the plough can be seen part of the wheel that supports the tail when the plough is out of work.

The spokes of the near side front wheel can be seen on the right, but the other front wheel is out of the picture. By adjusting the height of these wheels the depth of ploughing can be regulated.

Single furrow horse-drawn ploughs are raised out of the ground at the headland (see page 5) by the ploughman who lifts the handles. Heavier ploughs, such as the one illustrated on this page, cannot easily be lifted by hand, so they are fitted with a self-lift mechanism. When the ploughman, seated on the tractor, arrives at the headland he pulls a cord, and the plough bottoms rise up. When tractor and plough have turned round into the next bout the cord is pulled again and the plough bottoms drop back into the ground to work.

5. WOODEN BEAM PLOUGH WITHOUT WHEELS. With this implement the depth of ploughing is controlled partly by the skilful touch of the ploughman at the handles and partly by very accurate adjustment (setting) of the share. On some ploughs a shoe that slides along the surface of the land helps to control the depth. The width of ploughing is controlled partly by the ploughman and partly by the way in which the horses are hitched (fastened) to the plough. The adjustment of the hitch is very important with any type of plough, for the horses (or the tractor) must pull in just the right direction if the ploughing is to be done properly.

The pull needed to draw an implement is called the draught. The amount of the draught depends upon the soil more than anything else. Working a heavy clay soil requires a greater draught than working a light sandy soil. The addition of farmyard manure or lime to a clay soil reduces the draught needed. Any side-draught (pulling at an angle) increases the pull needed to draw the plough.

The wooden stick clipped to the top of the beam is called a paddle, and is used to scrape away sticky soil from the breast of the plough. In this picture only one horse can be seen, but there are really two, one hitched behind the other and both walking in the furrow.

In some parts of Britain this type of plough is called a balance or swing plough, because it balances without wheels. It must not be confused with the balance plough shown in the next picture.

6 and 7. BALANCE PLOUGH AND TURNABOUT PLOUGH. These are called one-way ploughs