If you plow whole strong turfy Furrows cross-ways, as _Virgil_ directs, and as it is too commonly practised, the Coulter cannot easily cut them, because, being loose underneath, they do not make a sufficient Resistance or Pressure against its Edge, but move before it, and so are apt to be drawn and driven up into Heaps, with their Surfaces lying all manner of Ways, and situate in all manner of Postures: So the Turf, which is not turned, continuing in the open Air, grows on, and with its vigorous Roots holds the Earth fast together, and will not suffer the necessary Division to be made, which would be, if the Turf were rotten, and which is the End of all Tillage, _viz._ to increase the Pasture of Plants. Next, some have vast heavy Drags, with great long Iron Tines in them; and tho’ these huge broken Pieces of Furrows, being looser than before, require keener Edges to cut them; yet these Drag-tines have no Edge at all, but are as blunt as the Furrows they should cut. These Drags draw them sometimes into larger Heaps, leaving the under _Stratum_ bare betwixt them, only shaking off some of their Mould in tumbling them about, and scratching their Surfaces, without reducing them to a moderate Fineness, until this ill-broken Land has, for above a Year, and sometimes longer, entertained Ploughs, Cattle, and Men, with a frequent laborious Exercise, for which they are obliged to the one Coulter. If the Soil be shallow, it may be broken up with a narrow Furrow, which will the sooner be brought in Tilth; but if it be a deep Soil, the Furrows must be proportionably large, or else a Part of the good Mould must be left under unmoved, and so lost; for a narrow Furrow cannot be plowed deep, because the Plough will continually slip out from the hard Land toward the Right-hand, unless the rising Furrow be of sufficient Weight to press the Plough towards the Left, and keep it in its Work: The deeper you plow, the greater Weight is required to press it; so that the deeper your Land is, the worse (or into the larger Furrows) must it be broken up with one Coulter, insomuch that, if the Land be strong (as most deep Ground in _England_ is), it is a Work of some Years to conquer it, after it has been rested. And often it happens, that the excessive Charge of this Tillage reduces the Profit of rich Land below that of poor. This gives an Opportunity to deceitful Servants, of imposing upon their ignorant Masters. They plow such deep Land with a small shallow Furrow, to the end the Turf and Furrows may be broken, and made fine the sooner; pretending they will plow it deeper the next time (which is called Stirring), which these Rogues know very well cannot be done, and intend no more than that the Plough coming the easier after the Horses, their Coats may shine the better; and tho’ there be no Crop at Harvest, they must have Four Meals a Day all the Year, and extravagant Wages at _Michaelmas_, or at any time of the Year, when they think fit to misbehave themselves.