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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



JULY, 1858. 



PLATE I. 



PORTRAIT OF MR. WILLIAM CROSSKILL. 



PLATE 11. 

 A SHORTHORN OX. 



THE PROPERTY OF MR. E. WORTLEY, OF RIDLINGTON, RUTLAND. 



MR. WILLIAM CROSSKILL 



The little town of Beverley, in the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire, has lately been heard of in every 

 quarter of the globe — chiefly from the activity and 

 enterprise of the well-known agricultural imple- 

 ment maker whose portrait appears this month in 

 the Farmer's Magazine. 



Mr. William Crosskill owes his position in life 

 entirely to his own industry and perseverance. The 

 son of a whitesmith in a small country town, left 

 fatherless at the early age of thirteen, with a 

 widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters 

 t provide for, his early struggles were well calcu- 

 lated to call forth all his energy of character. By 

 hard work, he succeeded in gradually extending 

 the little workshop left by his father. As soon as 

 practicable, he exchanged it for a larger one, and 

 erected an iron foundry, to blow the furnace of 

 which, and to drive a few simple tools, he fixed a 

 steam engine— at a period when such a machine 

 was considered a prodigy in a remote agricultural 

 district. The estabhshment increased rapidly, and 

 became well known as an agricultural implement 

 manufactory ; until the invention and successful in- 

 troduction of the celebrated clod-crusher spread 

 Mr. Crosskill's name and fame far and wide, as 



OLD SERIES] 



one who had rendered essential service to the cause 

 of agricultural progress. 



The difficulties and obstacles that had to be 

 overcome in bringing this implement into use, 

 would afford materials for a striking contrast be- 

 tween the manner in which agricultural improve- 

 ments were received twenty years ago, and the 

 avidity with which they are now-a-days seized 

 upon and turned to account. In the first year 

 after the invention of the clod-crusher, only three 

 were manufactured; and in order to bring them 

 into use, two of these had to be given away. But 

 the obvious excellence of the implement, whenever 

 it was tried, could not fail to vanquish all pre- 

 judice. The yearly sales increased rapidly; and, 

 after awarding prizes to the implement at their 

 annual exhibitions in 1843 and 1844, the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of England in 1846 stamped 

 it with the highest mark of their approval, by 

 passing a unanimous resolutioii of Council, to the 

 effect that the Gold Medal of the Society should be 

 presented to Mr. Crosskill for his valuable inven- 

 tion. Since that time, its introduction has been 

 rapid and complete. A clod-crusher is now an in- 

 dispensable requisite on every well-managed farm, 

 B ryOT,. XLVIX.— No. 1. 



