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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



A PLAIN FARMER'S VIEWS OF THE NEW THINGS IN AGRICULTURE. 



T have, as briefly as I knew how, noticed the steam 

 ploughs lately introduced to the agricultural world. Be- 

 sides these so-called ploughs, we have various other 

 inventions made to aid in cultivation : these are upon 

 the rotary principle. The only one drawn or im- 

 pelled by steam, which I have actually seen in work, is 

 Usher's steam plough. This I saw at Carlisle. It is a 

 ponderous thing altogether. A powerful steam engine 

 precedes a large revolving cylinder, or cylindrical frame- 

 work, upon which are affixed a number of plough 

 bodies, or rather ploughshares in frames ; and as each 

 share comes down in contact with the soil, it penetrates 

 or presses into it, and turns over with more or less accu- 

 racy a furrow a few feet in length. The slight trial given 

 to it there sufficed to coaunce me that it was a great 

 waste of power for a very ineffectual purpose. The idea 

 of every share having to descend to enter the soil inde- 

 pendently, and turn over a small length of furrow, and 

 then to rise again, and so on in succession, one after 

 another, leaving little strips after the engine, I felt assured 

 must be an erroneous one, and could never be brought 

 into general practice. The result has proved my view 

 correct ; for we never hear of it now, so I presume the 

 scheme is given up, or, at all events, laid aside. 



One almost wonders what will come next ; and to 

 find so much thought, ingenuity, and capital expended 

 upon manifestly erroneous principles, astonishes every 

 plain farmer. I like the plough : it is near perfection : 

 we only want to establish economical draught-power. I 

 believe it will be a long time before it is superseded, 

 even by our friend Mr. Smith ; but revolving ploughs 

 around a large drum I don't believe in. Far better, in 

 my humble opinion, is the principle of rotary culti- 

 vators, of which, however, I have not yet formed any 

 very elevated opinion. I will now notice some of these 

 very briefly. I have more than once seen SamueUou's 

 digging machine ia work. Gibson's I have also seen in 

 work. Both pulverize very wall, so far as they go ; but 

 it requires the power of four good horses to break up 

 even a less breadth than two feet. Both machines work 

 upon a similar principle — having revolving teeth or 

 forks. Samuelson's are like fork tines, and are made of 

 steel. They revolve very rapidly, and break up the soil 

 to six or eight inches deep, throwing out behind a con- 

 tinuous stream of pulverized soil. Gibson's is a series 

 of cast-iron wheels with strong prongs. These press 

 into the soil, which is pulverized as it is turned up. This 

 machine is, however, better adapted for clod-crushing 

 rather than breaking up the unploughed soil. Samuel- 

 son's can more effectually break up such soil, bnt at a 

 great expenditure of power. The most important im- 

 plement of this class with which I am acquainted is 

 Romaine's patent steam cultivator. I have not seen this 

 machine in work, therefore cannot offer any personal 

 observations ; but from reliable information given me 

 by a close observer who recently inspected it, I am in- 

 clined to think there is something really valuable and of 

 considerable utility in the invention. It is the same 

 machine upon which our worthy pioneering friend 

 Mechi some time ago staked, or offered to stake, his 

 agricultural reputation. It is said to " differ from all 

 others hitherto brought before the public for the pur- 

 pose of applying steam-power to the cultivation of the 

 soil, in entirely dispensing with the use of ploughs, 

 ropes, or auxiliary implements. It is a fourteen-horse 

 portable steam-engine capable of propelling itself, com- 



bined with, and giving motion to, a rotary digger." 

 The engme and boiler are carried on a pair of high 

 broad wheels, with two small wheels in front. The 

 large wheels are driven by the engine ; the small wheels 

 are used for steerage. By a simple disengaging arrange- 

 ment the latter are left free when the machine has to be 

 turned round, and by driving one of the large wheels, 

 while the other remains stationary, the implement can 

 be turned completely round within its own length. The 

 cultivating part consists of a hollow cylinder six feet six 

 inches long and two feet six inches in diameter, armed 

 with cutters ruade of wrought-iron, of sufficient strength 

 to enter the soil. These are separately secured by bolts, 

 and can readily be replaced in case of accident. In work, 

 it takes six and a-half feet, which it highly pulverizes ; 

 and it can be turned on the headland in loss space than 

 the common plough with two horses abreast. Its daily 

 work is about six acres, at an expense of 35s. ; and the 

 depth taken from seven to nine inches. It digs the 

 ground, besides pulverizing it; so that at one operation, 

 it is said, the work of two ploughings and an indefinite 

 number of harrowings is performed, whereby a good seed- 

 bed is obtained. Now, to me, this does seem more like a 

 really usefulimplement ; and if it can be made to do 

 all this work effectively at a moderate cost, it cannot 

 fail to be a great boon to the farming community. 

 I heartily wish Mr. Romaine, the inventor, and Mr. 

 Crosskill, the manufacturer, every success with it ; and 

 hope they will soon bring it before the public openly, 

 so that its merits may be well looked into. 



Just a word about rotary cultivation. I am a plain 

 man of business, and look to have my work done pro- 

 perly and effectually, so as to save the necessity of re- 

 sorting to adventitious aids to accomplish my purpose. 

 With a strong iron plough and a good team, I can plough 

 and thus break up mi/ land in its driest, hardest state. 

 No cultivator that I have seen can do this, I am to- 

 day, in my latter-seeding, ploughing-in a luxuriant 

 growth of green oats and annuals, which constitute in 

 this most prolific season a regular green manuring. 

 There it lies under the broken furrow, where I hope it 

 will do my crop good service. These rotary cultivators 

 would throw it on the top, making a pretty mess — stop- 

 ping harrows and drilling, and leaving a most unsightly 

 field. In all cropped lands there are corn roots, stub- 

 bles, &c., &c., to be ploughed in, there to rot upon the 

 furrow-sole, to be mingled in the next operation of cul- 

 ture. The rotary cultivators attempt to mix all as they 

 proceed, but don't do it ; and the value of rotting 

 roots, stubbles, and other vegetable matter, is chiefly lost. 

 or passes away. The mingling must have time, the 

 decaying process must have time, and the decaying 

 matter must be arrested and retained in the soil. 1 am 

 one of those untidy farmers whose farms will, somehow 

 or other, produce twitch ; of course it is indigenous — it 

 grows, it will grow. Well, there it is. My ploughs 

 break it up, in ploughing, in something like order ; and it 

 is brought up, in the next process, as a sod or lump, and 

 is easily " picked." These rotators tear it all into bits, 

 which on my cool light soils will never die, and not 

 readily on the heavier portions of my farm ; there it lies, 

 forming innumerable sets for future plants. Well, 

 enough of this ; for one might go on indefinitely. I must 

 say that I am old-fashioned enough to prefer that old 

 time-honoured implement the jdough, in some one or 

 other of its now almost innumerable phases, as lh;i first 



