Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 4, 1802).djvu/280

25°] TUR wards Its front) j each beam hav- ing its distinft coulter, and fea- thered sock. — A, B, is a strong iron rod, formed into a screw, for the greater part of its length : this screw, being affixed to the left hand beam at A, passes through the other beam, to which it is attached by means of tw6 nuts with hand- les, marked a and b; and, when firmly screwed on each side of such beam, it fixes both at any dis- tance required. C, ftnd D, are two wooden (or sometimes iron) bars, that are fixed in a similar manner to the left-hand beam, and passed through the other, where they are seciued by wedges. E, is a bar of iron, which is likewise inserted through both beams; being prrforatrd with holes, for fixing the bridle, by which the plough is drawn. The mould- boards are fastened to the sheaths by hinges, and are placed at any requisite width, by means of two iron pins, f and g; which, de- scending through the beams, pass through holes made in a thin iron bar, fixed to the inside of each mould-board. — F, and G, are the two feathered socks. Fig. 2, is a bird's-eye view of the same implement j in which the manner of altering the mould- board may be more clearly per- ceived. — When the plough is em- ployed in this way, it is dra,wn by two horses. Fig. 3, is another view of the plough, from above j when the two beams are brought into con- ta£t, forming one double-raould- board-plough. In such case, the coulters are removed j the two 8ocks are taken oflF; and that iparked U, is put' upon the points TUR of both the sheatlis, .<=o as to clean the bottom of the furrow between the drills, while it serves to keep the two sheaths firmly together. The machine is now drawn by one horse. — Ihe advantages d' r;ved from the use of this implement are great ; as double the work of a common plough may thus be per- formed j and, as the mach'!.e does not, like the latter, lay tht^ soil too much upon the drill, — Sometimes, the Roxburgh plough is m:'de with two additional moveable mould- boards, which are suspended by hooks ; when the two beams arc separated, as in Fig. , and 2. In this case, it will set up two drills at once J though it ought then to be made proportionally stronger, and to be drawn by two horses. In the 4th vol. of the Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of England Society, we find an ac- count of a peculiar and. very suc- cessful cultivation of turnips; by J. KiRKPATKicK, Esq. of the Igle of Wight, He states, that a Mr. CuBiTT Gray, of Southrepps, Norfolk, never harrows his land, till it is to be ploughed again ; but leaves it as open as possible, in or- der to warm it j conceiving that land can never be too warm or dry for turnips; in consequence of which, he has uniformly, for thelast l6 years, had the best crops; even though the sowing season was dry. — Notwithstanding every precau- tion, it frequently happens in tur- nip-fields, that large spots remain barren : we have, therefore, sub- joined the following representation of a simple instrument invented by Mr. Gray, for the purpose of fill- ing up 'such vacant spaces from the adjoining parts ot the same field j and which has also been em- ployed