THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



345 



fairly reckoned as at least eight bushels per acre. . • . > 

 In working, it is found that there is not only a saving of 

 cost in each operation as compared with horse-work, 

 but there is a further saving in the number of opera- 

 tions, owing to the greater efficiency of the steam- 

 tillage." This last point, so well put, is corroborative 

 of what we have often stated as almost axiomatic in the 

 science of agricultural mechanism — that the more perfect 

 the culture the less the number of processes and 

 machines required to carry it on. In a series of papers 

 which (ve contributed some years ago to this Journal, 

 we expressed our belief that, if deep culture and an un- 

 trodden soil could be secured, that not only would the 

 crops be more valuable, and the harvest more easily 

 depended upon, but that many of the processes now 

 required — with, of course, the mechanism by which they 

 were carried out — would be entirely superseded. And 

 now steam has proved beyond a doubt that by its aid 

 this deep culture and this untrodden soil can be secured 

 at a practically economical rate, and, where so secured, 

 that the simplification of labour by its means is being 

 already attained. 



One immense advantage obtained by the use of steam 

 power for ploughing, over that of horses, is the wider 

 range of its applicability. Thus, while the limit of the 

 draught of horse-power per furrow may be set down 

 at its extremest point at 7 cwt.,but in many soils only 

 at 5 cwt., the limit of the draught of the steam-plough 

 per furrow may be set down at from 25 to 35 cwt., ac- 

 cording to soil. The horse-power may be applied in 

 any way ; but the 7 or the 5 cwt. draught is all that 

 can be possibly obtained. True, with six horses a 

 draught of 10 cwt. may be obtained ; but, as it cannot 

 be sustained for any practically working-period, it may 

 be put out of the field of consideration or discussion. 

 With the higher draught of the steam-plough, we have 

 a wide range of working capability ; five times as great, 

 in point of fact, as that given by the plough. "This 

 point" — the wide margin available between the 5 or 

 7 cwt. of the horse and the 25 or 35 cwt. of the steam- 

 plough — is therefore," as we have elsewhere re- 

 marked, " of the utmost importance to be remembered 

 in discussing the probabilities of steam ploughing." 

 We may here be permitted to give some statements 

 (from our " Year Book of Agricultural Facts"), founded 

 upon " facts," kindly provided us by Mr. Fowler, which 

 we have reason to know have been highly-estimated by 

 practical men as containing information of a valuable 

 nature in connection with steam-ploughing. We, of 

 course, need scarcely say here, that the facts are de- 

 duced from a very wide range of experience in the field- 

 use of Mr. Fowler's system of steam-cultivation. The 

 working draught being placed at 25 cwt. per furrow, and 

 the speed 300 lineal feet per minute— this practice 

 having shown to be the best and most economical work- 

 ing speed — the daily expenses of working the plough are 

 found to be SOs. a-day of ten hours, or 5s. an hour. 



Under these conditions, two acres per furrow are 

 ploughed in ten hours, and, as a four-furrow plough is 

 used, eight acres is the extent ploughed per day. This 

 four-furrow plough is worked at a cost of 6s. 3d. per 



acre, or, to put it in a form easily remembered, one 

 shilling per cwt. draught per acre. The wire-rope is 

 provided and maintained at a cost of Is. 3d. per acre 

 ploughed. For the most economical way in which to 

 work the ropo, and for other practical points connected 

 with the subject, we refer the reader to the " Year Book 

 of Agricultural Facts," p. 12. 



Able and full reports of the trials of the steam ploughs 

 at Canterbury having been given some time ago in the 

 pages of this Journal, we are here spared the necessity of 

 going further into their details. Without wishing to 

 draw invidious comparisons, we may be permitted, how- 

 ever, to state, that Mr. Fowler's apparatus still showed, 

 or rather maintained, what it has always showed, that 

 business-like capability which has secured its success, 

 and high confidence in it to the agricultural public 

 in its powers. One great secret of Mr. Fowler's success 

 is, that whatever may be his exertions in one season to 

 improve his apparatus, and however much these may 

 be approved of, he does not remain satisfied, but makes 

 as strenuous endeavours at improvement in the next. 

 Excelsior ! is evidently his motto. At the same time the 

 praise of perseverance must not be withheld from other 

 competitors in the race of fame. Mr. Smith — shall we 

 say the rival and the opponent ? nay, rather let us call 

 them, " of steam-culture the brothers two, with some- 

 what diverse tempers it is true," — was not present at 

 Canterbury, having, like others, nameless here, seceded 

 from the Society's Shows ; so of him and his capitally- 

 working apparatus we have nothing here to say ; but 

 Messrs. Chandler and Oliver exhibited and showed, by 

 what they have done and are doing, that they do not 

 leave the gift or grace of perseverance to be cultivated 

 by others alone. 



The apparatus of Messrs. Chandler and Oliver has 

 some peculiarities worthy of notice. It is in some 

 respects of somewhat similar aspect to the plough of 

 Mr. Fowler ; it is a balanced apparatus like his, but the 

 ploughs at each end of the apparatus are carried in inde- 

 pendent frames, one of these frames being placed on one 

 side, and one on the other, of a rocking shaft, placed 

 in the centre of the apparatus. The balancing of these 

 two frames is secured by rods or chains passing to the 

 central shaft from the outer extremities. TJp inner 

 ends of the frames — that is, those nearest the central 

 shaft — are provided with racks, actuated by pinions, 

 these worked by handles placed outside on the ends of 

 their shafts. By these racks and pinions the frames can 

 be raised from, or lowered to, the ground, the one rising 

 as the other descends. This arrangement ensures a 

 much shorter length of plough carriage or frame than 

 required in Mr. Fowler's apparatus. For in Messrs. 

 Chandler and Oliver's machine the plough can be 

 brought nearer to the centre, while in Mr. Fowler's the 

 ploughs must be set on the beam at such a distance as to 

 enable one set of ploughs to clear the ground when the 

 one end of the carriage is rising, and the other set of 

 ploughs to enter it when the other end of the plough 

 carriage is falling. 



Steam cultivation — using this term in preference to 

 that which has a more limited signification— namely, 



