THE ROMANCE OF THE PLOUGH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3336, 20 February 1918, Page 8

THE ROMANCE OF THE PLOUGH.

The plough will soon be busy again all through the rural parts of the Dominion, or ought to be; although, as we have declared again and again, it is foolish indeed to expect that any man will readily turn to and break up his usual quota of pasture while other farm products are making relatively high values, and while there is hesitancy on the part of the Government to state that the price of wheat will be guaranteed for a period sufficient to ensure stability in a farmer's contemplated farm operations. "The Romance of the plough" may seem far-fetched in the present circumstances, perhaps, and yet the story of the gradual development of this most useful implement from times of long ago is full of interest. The process by which it has gradually been evolved from a rude beginning to the present stage is an interesting story, given in a bulletin issued by the Department of Agriculture, Canada. The first plough was a pig's nose, the job being done by pigs, as they rooted over the soft earth in search of juicy plant roots or fat grubs. The farmer of long ago noticed the. efficient manner in which the pigs turned over the soil, and tried to imitate them. He cut down a small tree and trimmed off all but one branch, leaving this one about 2ft long and sharpened on the end. A long stick was fastened to the trunk of the tree with which to steady it, and the plough was readj r to use. This was dragged up and down over the area to be planted, and the earth torn up until it was sufficiently loosened to give "a cohering of soil for the seed to be sown. The only reason given for ploughing the soil in those days was to get a covering of earth for the seeds.- It was soon found, however, that the weeds got thicker and thicker after each crop, and as years went by and the field was ploughed up again and again, the soil became harder to work. It would be very sticky when wet, and bake into a hard mass] when dry, and the plants were greatly injured by the dry weather. Now the reason of this was that the stick plough did not turn the weeds and weed seeds under the soil to smother and die, neither did it turn up their roots to be killed by the frosts. Neither did the plough crumble the soil as do the ploughs we new use; nor did this stick-plough loosen the soil to any great depth, for, had the soil been worked deeper, it would have held more of the rains, and the plants would not have died of thirst in the hot season. But even if these farmers of long ago had a poor plough,', they at least had grasped the idea suggested by the pig's nose, and many improvements were soon made in the shape of the plough which increased its usefulness. But for many years the plough remained at best a clumsy implement, which served to stir the soil to only a very slight depth, and did Hot cover the weeds and grass as a good plough should do. A peculiar custom in some countries was to draw ploughs by tying them to the tails of horses or "oxen. They had no harnessmakers such as we have, and leather harness was unknown. So tying a plough to the horse's tail was about as handy and cheap a way of "hitching up" the horse or ox as could be thought of. After a while people began, to see that this was a cruel practice, and laws were passed making it a crime to plough in this maimer. The plough of those days left the soil lumpy, and the farmer- or his sons broke up the clods with a club, one of the reasons for ploughing being to make the soil fine and granular. A lumpy soil will not germinate seeds well, for, to make seeds come up quickly, the soil should be fine enough to touch the seed on all sides. A lumpy soil will not grow large and healthy plants, for the roots find it difficult to obtain food and water. All the ploughs mentioned above were made of wood; but they used to break easily, and would wear out quickly; so someone made one partly of iron, placing the iron on the. parts of .the plough that used to wear out first: the other parts were still made of wood. Later the ploughs were made of iron, except the handles. Strange to say, as a new and useful idea is oftentimes ridiculed, so it was with the iron plough. Some farmers said it made the weeds grow, others that it poisoned the soil, and many refused to use it, However, this strange opinion soon died out, and the wooden ploughs can now be found only in the museums.