THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



189 



otber (as will be presently adverted to) ; but for flat 

 work, in which the furrows are all thrown one way, 

 crossing of the ropes would occur. This, however, 

 merely requires the slack rope to be lifted over the 

 plough in work, and the plough returning empty to 

 cross over the tight rope. For accommodating; the 

 length of the smill rope passing round the pulley to 

 the varying lengths of the furrow in different parts of a 

 field, it must be shortened or let out from time to time 

 by means of a few reserve coils carried upon the ploughs. 

 It would be an improvement upon the present mode of 

 hooking the draught ropes to the irapUment if a " clip" 

 were made use of, which could be instantly released by 

 the ploughman ; or if the ropes wrapped round a small 

 barrel, held from rotating by a catch, and allowed to 

 revolve when the pull or draught may be required to 

 be stopped, in consequence of a stone, root, or other 

 obstacle suddenly arresting the progress of the plough. 



I now come lo the second point — the construction of 

 the plough or ploughing machine. And in the outset I 

 would observe that we require a ploughing machine, and 

 not merely a means of yoking separate ploughs held by 

 men as before. When there no longer remain any ani- 

 mals to drive, and we have a steady, uniform, unflag- 

 ging draught-power, why are we to retain the workman 

 in a mechanical employment, and thus perpetuate our 

 dependence upon his unskilfulness, carelessness, or 

 fatigue ? When once relieved from the co-operation of 

 horses, having voluntary movements and wills of their 

 own, ploughing hecomes a strictly mechanical operation. 

 The attention and directing judgment of the ploughman 

 are no longer necessary to overrule the animal power, 

 and accommodate the implement to its movements ; and 

 therefore I regard as incongruous and objectionable all 

 projects for steam culture with ordinary horse-ploughs 

 held by hand. They are also expensive in labour, re- 

 quiring more workmen than a • loughing machine does 

 for the same number of furrows ; and they are awk:vard, 

 owing to the difficulty of conducting a succession of 

 ploughs close up to the headland, and turning or shift- 

 ing them for the return course. Contrivances for 

 meeting this difficulty I cannot but look upon as wasting 

 ingenuity in a wrong direction. 



Mr. Williams, Mr. Fowler, and other inventors, have 

 practically demonstrated that several plough-shares and 

 mould-boards united in a single frame may not only 

 make very good work, but also be of considerably 

 lighter draught than single and separate ploughs, taking 

 ' an equal number of furrows. Not only is the draught 

 less, but power is gained in another way, by combining 

 a considerable number of ploughs together. A rope 

 pulling three ploughs, at a speed of three miles per hour, 

 is dragged twice as far in the same time as a J ope haul- 

 ing six ploughs at \^ miles per hour ; that is, the power 

 wasted in drattging the rope itself is double in the former 

 case what it is in the latter, for the same quantity of 

 work turned over, to say nothing of the double amount 

 of wear. There is also a saving of time. If a three- 

 furrow plough traverse the field in three minutes, and 

 waste one minute at the end, one quarter of the day is 

 sacrificed out of work ; whereas, if a six-furrow plough 

 perform the journey in six minutes, the one minute at 

 the end amounts to only one-seventh of the day. Let 

 these considerations be borne in mind, while we proceed 

 to notice various forms of ploughing machine used or 

 proposed. 



They arc of two kinds — one for flat work, in which 

 the furrows are all thrown one way ; and the other for 

 making " lands" or " stetches." 



Turnwrtst, one-way, or flat ploughing is adapted for 

 light land, and may be practised also upon well-drained 

 strong soils. The most successful steam-ploughs have 

 hitherto been those constructed for this description of 



work, the advantage attending it being, that an imple- 

 ment, taking three or more furrows at once, can be 

 worked without requiring to be turned round at the 

 ends, and with anchorages gradually shifting along the 

 headlands ; whereas in ridge and furrow ploughing such 

 an implement must be moved across to the other side of 

 the " land " or " ridge," and the anchorages shifted a 

 considerable distance forward or backward at every 

 bout ; while laying out the slack rope in the next track 

 so far from the plough is also a difficulty. The imple- 

 ment having a simple to-and-fro motion, and the fur- 

 rows all thrown the same side, it would appear at first 

 sight very «asy to fix two or three, or more, of Low- 

 cock's turnwrest ploughs (with shares pointing both 

 ways, and self-adjusting mould-boards) in a frame, after 

 the manner of the common double-furrow plough. But 

 the difficulty is, that the ploughs must change their 

 position sideways at each end of the work, in order 

 to "track" rightly in going opposite ways. Lord 

 Willoughby has displayed great ingenuity in providing 

 for this necessity, but the space required for allowing the 

 ploughs to pass each other places one so far behind 

 another, and time lost inadjusting them is so considera- 

 ble, that the principle is objectionable. There seems no 

 other course than to have duplicate sets of ploughs 

 pointing in different directions, one carried in the air 

 while the other is in work. Messrs. Fisken attach the 

 ploughs to the ends of their windlass framework, travel- 

 ling upon two pairs of wheels, one set at each end, and 

 both pointing towards the carriage. The set out of work 

 precedes, while that in work follows the windlass- 

 carriage, the ploughs in each set being just far enough 

 apart to allow the furrow- slices to turn over without 

 danger of choking. Each plough-body is affixed to a 

 separate lever, answering to the common plough-beam, 

 and by very simple mechanism is raised or depressed at 

 pleasure. Thus, instead of the ploughs entering or 

 emerging from the soil simultaneously, they do so in 

 succession, so as to plough square up to the headlands. 

 In the system of direct-hauling by wire-rope, in which it 

 is indispensable to avoid unnecessary mechanism, in 

 order to have the implement as light and simple as pos- 

 sible, we can hardly expect such niceties as this ; and, 

 instead of an arrangement of levers, chains, screws, and 

 sockets for lifting and lowering the ploughs individually, 

 I can imagine no better principle than that of balancing 

 two sets of fixed ploughs upon a single pair of wheels, 

 as adopted by Mr. Fowler. The frame, hung midway 

 upon the wheels, with a set of ploughs at each end, is 

 tilted so as to bring the hindmost set into work ; and 

 when arrived at the headland, the attendant has simply 

 to pull down the other end, and steer the implement in 

 its next course when the rope begins to move it onward. 

 The two sets of ploughs are immovably fixed upon the 

 framing, pointing toward each other; the wheels, one 

 running in the bottom of the furrow, left open at the 

 last course, the other on the unploughed land, regulate 

 depth and width of work, like the wheels of a horse- 

 plough ; and, by means of screws working in vertical 

 standards, the frame can be adjusted upon the axletree, 

 according to the depth of ploughing required. The 

 steerage is accurately effected by slightly "locking" 

 the wheels with a regulating screw, under the command 

 of the ploughman, who rides upon the tail of the frame. 

 I attach great importance to the saving of lime at the 

 ends ; and this is one reason for approving of the simple 

 construction and action of Mr. Fowler's plough. One 

 of the main advantages of this implement is the light- 

 ness of its draught. From numerous experiments with 

 the dynamometer, it appears that the draught of com- 

 mon horse-ploughs, when out of work, is 30 to 35 per 

 cent, of their draught when ploughing an ordinary fur- 

 row. Now, in Mr. Fowler's implement, this sliding of the 



