PLOUGH TRIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 17

PLOUGH TRIAL.

A trial of Howard's digging ploughs was held at Mr J. B. Blair's (late Shand's) estate on Monday under the superintendence of Mr James Reid, of Oamaru. A large number of persons interested in agriculture were present, including Messrs J. Reid (of Corner Bush), W. Patrick, Gray (of Reid and Gray), P. Grant, W. Grant, D. Grant, Allan, R. Muir, and J. Brown. The trial was an unqualified success. The plough was first tried in a piece of stubble land, very dirty with yarrow and couch. The plough did its work exceedingly well, going down into the soil about ll£in, making a furrow about 14in in width, and lifting up from 2in to 3in of fresh subsoil, thus satisfying the most exacting agriculturists. Some of the farmerc present desiring to see how the plough would work in lea land it was taken down to one of Mr Patrick's paddocks, where a good-sized piece of land was turned up. The land as in the previous case was also pretty foul, being full of couch and yarrow, with a heavy top growth. The plough, however, did equally as well as before, going down into the hard lea to a depth of Gin. Astonishment was expressed at the very lightness of the draught, there being only four medium horses ia the team all day, and these did not seem in the least distressed, although the weather was exceedingly hot. At the conclusion of the trial all present expressed their satisfaction with the result. Many also thought that the plough was likely to be largely brought into requisition by farmers as ifc saved so much labour, it only being necessary to plough the land once by means of the Howard, whereas with the ordinary doublefurrow plough it was necessary to do it twice. Another advantage of the Howard plough was that it saved two strokes of the harrows, the ground being thoroughly pulverised. As an indication of the estimation in which the plough was held, it may be mentioned that after the trial Mr J. Blair ordered two ploughs and Mr Patrick one. A number of other gentlemen also stated that they thought they would want some soon, as they considered them a great convenience. We understand that over 20 of the ploughs have been sold in the Oamaru district within the last three weeks.