’Tis a great Mistake in those who say _Virgil_’s Plough had Two Earth-boards; for it had none at all; but the Share itself always going obliquely, served instead of an Earth-board; and the Two Ears, which were the Corners of a Piece of Wood lying under the Share, did the Office of Ground-wrests: This Fashion continues to this Day in those Countries, and in _Languedoc_. This sort of Plough performs tolerably when Ground is fine, and makes a shift to break up light Land; and I could never find any other Land there; I am sure none comparable to ours for Strength: And it would be next to impossible, to break up such as we in _England_ call strong Land with it. I do not find, that the Arable Lands about _Rome_ are ever suffered to lie still long enough to come to a Turf; but I have observed in the low rich Lands in the _Calabria_’s, subject to the Invasions of the _Turks_, that there is Turf, and that these Ploughs go over the Land Two or Three times before the Turf of it is all broken, tho’ the Soil be a very mellow Sort of Garden-mould. Having no Coulters to cut it, they break and tear Turf into little Pieces. This was done in the Month of _November_; and had I not seen Men and Oxen at the Work, or had there been Oaks in the Place, I should rather have thought that Tillage performed by a Race of the first Teachers of it, in muzzling Acorns, than by Ploughs. However, the Mould being naturally very mellow, when the Turf is broken with shallow Plowing, they can plow deeper afterwards. The _English_ Ploughs are very different from the _Eastern_, as in general the Soil is. These, when well made, cut off the Furrow at the Bottom horizontally; and therefore, it being as thick on the Land-side as on the Furrow-side, the Plough cannot break it off from the whole Land, at such a Thickness (being Six times greater than the _Eastern_ Ploughs have to break off), and must of Necessity have a Coulter to cut it off: By this means the Furrow is turned perfectly whole, and no Part of the Turf of it broken; and if it lie long without new turning, the Grass from the Edges will spread, and form a new Turf (or Swerd) on the other Side, which was the Bottom of the Furrow before turning, but is now become the Surface of the Earth, and may soon become greener with Grass than before Plowing; and often the very Roots send up new Heads to help to stock the reversed Furrow, the former Heads being converted into Roots, so that it is doubly cloathed and braced on both Sides, or, as it were, kay’d together, firm and solid, almost as a Plank; it may be drawn from one Side of a Field to the other without breaking, and might possibly be made use of, instead of _Virgil_’s _Crates Viminea_, for harrowing or smoothing of fine-tilled Ground; but not without much Time, Labour, and Difficulty, can it be made such itself.