THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



23 



upwards of six and a-lialf millions, not available for 

 its relief without an infraction of the act, amounting 

 for the time to an abrogation of the Bank Charter. 



Many important questions will be raised when the 

 subject of the J3ank Charter comes to be discussed in 

 the approaching session of Parliament. Amongst 

 these will probably bo the inquiry how Itir a charter, 

 granted in 1844, when the exports of British and Irish 

 produce amounted to o-2 millions sterling, and the ton- 

 nage of shipping entered and cleared at our ports was 

 lOj million tons, is applicable to our commerce in 18 JG, 

 when the exports have risen to 9G;i millions sterling, 

 and the tonnage to 21-J million tons? 



The cause of the decrease of gold at the Bank is, in 

 part, the unfavourable state of the exchanges, or the 

 excess of imports over the exports, which must be paid 

 for in specie. But, independent of this, the require- 

 ments of the French government have compelled it 



to purchase bullion of the Bank of England at a heavy 

 ])remium. The amount of gold and silver coined in 

 France since 1848 is nearly 112 millions sterling, being 

 respectively ^^88,351,000 "in gold, and £23,031,000 in 

 silver ; whilst that coined in the United Kingdom is 

 £.")2,438,000 sterling, or £"50,378,000 in gold, and 

 £2,000,000 sterling in silver. 



We must not, however, conclude our statement 

 without stating that the immediate cause of the finan- 

 cial crisis was the panic, and consequent extensive 

 failures, in America, which stopped the remittances 

 from that country, and produced a heavy pressure upon 

 our banks. The letter-of-licence from Lord Palmer- 

 ston to the Bank of England relieved the commerce of 

 the country for the time ; the object of Parliament 

 must be to devise means to prevent, as far as possible, 

 the recurrence of these crises, which cause so much dis- 

 tress in the commercial world. 



WHO INVENTED THE STEAM PLOUGH? 



SrR, — I have read with much interest in your 

 journal for several weeks, "A Plain Farmer's View of 

 the New Things in Agriculture;" and I am pleased to 

 see, that, although he styles himself " A Plain Farmer," 

 he is not a prejudiced one. 



In your paper of November IGth he was pleased to 

 notice Mr. Smith's and my own modes of steam culture; 

 and it is with reference to his observations, and Mr. 

 Smith's letter of this week, that I crave a place in your 

 columns to correct an error into which they appear to 

 have fallen, with respect to Mr. Smith being the in- 

 ventor of the steam plough. 



Your " Plain Farmer" says, " Mr. Smith shall next 

 have my notice, as he has been indefatigable in the in- 

 troduction of steam power to cultivation, mid also lays 

 claim to being the origiyiator of the modern improve- 

 ments in steam plougMng." To which Mr. Smith 

 replies," I find it stated that I claim to be the originator 

 of the windlasses and rope traction for ploughing by 

 steam. I say Mr. Hannam made the first attempt, 

 but failed ; a7id that it loas I loho first efficiently 

 originated and applied them." 



Now, Sir, in justice to myself, I beg to state, that 

 three years at least before Mr. Smith entered into it I 

 ploughed part of my farm with a five-horse engine ; and 

 as long ago as the Lewes Cattle Shoio, 1852, I took a 

 model of a ploughing machine to that meeting, and 

 showed it to Messrs. Clayton and Shuttle worth, asking 

 them to carry it out, but they declined, and I have been 

 obliged to manufacture and work it out myself. At 

 that meeting I well remember Mr. Fowler (who made 

 Mr. Smith's machine) was draining in a meadow ad- 

 joining the show-yard with horses, he not having as 

 yet applied the steam engine to that purpose. In June, 

 1854, I took out a patent for a combined lever plough 

 and cultivator, and in May, 1855 (previous to the 

 Carlisle meeting), I patented my first mode of steam 

 culture, viz., with one engine, to work both ways by 

 means of a platform and pulleys at the opposite head- 

 land, the engine, machine, &c., to move forward and 

 keep opposite the work. 



On the same day I opened a discussion at the Central 

 London Farmers' Club, " On the General Application 

 of Steam-power to Agricultural Purposes ;" and I men- 

 tioned the names of every person that I could ascertain 

 had made any attempts at steam ploughing (Mr. 

 Hannam amongst the rest) ; but Mr. Smith's name was 

 not there, for the very reason, that, as yet, he had no 

 hand in it. 



All this I had done before Mr. Fowler contracted to 

 make Mr. Smith's machine. The model, which I ex- 

 hibited last year at the Smithfield Show, was made, that 

 drawings might be taken from it ; and if your readers 

 and the public at large will refer to your paper of May 

 14th, 1855, or Bell's Weelihj Messenger of the sanae 

 date, they will find my predictions there stated, which 

 are being more confirmed every day ; and it will require 

 no further argument than that discussion, and the dates 

 that I have given above, to prove, amongst those who 

 are carrying out the modern improvements in steam 

 ploughing, " who was the inventor of the steam 

 plough." 



I have subsequently patented another mode of using 

 two engines, with machines attached, to do away with 

 all friction of pulleys, and to require no more rope 

 than the length of the field, the same to move along 

 the headlands, as before described, and which was exhi- 

 bited at Salisbury. And also a method of making the 

 common portable engines " locomotive," by means of a 

 chain motion connecting the crank-shaft to the hind 

 wheel J thus propelling themselves along. Your " Plain 

 Farmer " will perhaps be pleased to know, that my two 

 engines brought themselves and their respective ma- 

 chines home from Salisbury, a distance of forty miles, 

 with the assistance of one horse to steer ; carrying, in 

 addition to ihe weight of the machine, 100 gallons of 

 water and half a ton of coal, and only had assistance at 

 two hills, which were very long and steep. 



Your correspondent, who appears to me to have given 

 a very fair and descriptive account of the several im- 

 plements at work at Salisbury, says of my ploughs, 

 " The ploughs are badly arranged." Now, I have no 

 right to find fault with his decision, because their work 

 was not such as I could have wished ; but when I tell 

 him that it was never tried till on that piece, and was 

 the first I had made in that form being actually finished 

 at Salisbury, and that being obliged, from want of 

 power, to take off two ploughs on account of the imprac- 

 ticable position in which we were placed, and conse- 

 quently the line of draught being incorrect; he will 

 perhaps make some allowance for their performance on 

 the hill, as on every occasion since they have made ex- 

 cellent work. The ex Mayor of Salisbury was much 

 pleased with their work on his farm. Mr. Boydell has 

 tried them behind his traction engine, and told me he 

 never made such good work with a combined plough ; 

 and they have been tried in Staffordshire, making 

 equally good work there. Your correspondent, who 



