THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



251 



ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



A Monthly Councii- was held on Wednesday, the 

 4th of August : present, His Grace the Duke of Marl- 

 borough, President, in the Chair ; Lord Walsingham ; 

 Sir Archibald Keppel Macdonald, Bart. ; Sir Edward 

 Kerrison, Bart., M. P.; Hon, William George Caven- 

 dish, M.P. ; Mr. Raymond Barker; Mr. Barnett ; Mr. 

 Caldwell; Colonel Challoner; Mr Druce, Mr. Exall ; 

 Mr. Brandreth Gibbs ; Mr. Hamond ; Mr. Fisher 

 Hobbs ; Mr. Wren Hoskyns ; Mr. Howard ; Mr. Law- 

 rence; Mr. Milward; Mr. Paget, M.P.; Prof. Simonds; 

 Mr. Robert Smith ; Mr. Jonas Webb ; Mr. Burch 

 Western, and Mr. Wilson (of Stowlangtolt). 

 William John Legh, Esq., of Lyme Park, Cheshire, was 

 elected a Governor of the Society. 



The following new members were elected : 

 Cartwright, Colonel, Kineton, V/arwickahire. 

 Gates, Captain, Whalley Abbey, Clitheroe, Lancashire. 

 Leonard, Rev. Francis Barford, Brook House, Penhow, Mon- 

 mouthshire. 

 Morley, John, Effingham-hill, Leatherhead, Surrey. 

 Oakes, Harvey A.aten, Stowmarket, SulToik. 

 Wallia, Edward, Wandsworth, Surrey. 



Finances. — Mr. Raymond Barker, Chairman of the 

 Finance Committee, presented the monthly report on 

 the accounts of the Society, from which it appeared that 

 the current cash-balance in tl^ hands of Messrs. Drum- 

 mond was .j^IjSQ?. 



Drainage. — Lord Walsingham reported from the 

 Drainage Queries' Committee their recommendation 

 that the replies received from Members of Council to 

 the queries transmitted to the [^^Society by the Board of 

 Trade should be forwarded to that department by the 

 Secretary. 



Steam Cultivation. — Sir Archibald Keppel Mac- 

 donald, Bart., Senior Steward of Implements at the 

 Chester Meeting, submitted to the Council the following 

 report from the judges of steam cultivators : — 



REPORT ON STEAM PLOUGH OR CULTIVATOR TRIALS- 



There were five competitors for the prize of 500/. 

 offered by the Society for " the Steam Cultivator that 

 shall in the most efficient manner turn over the soil, 

 and be an economical substitute for the plough or the 

 spade." 



C. Burrell, of Thetford, sent the Patent Locomotive 

 Traction Engine or Steam Horse, invented by James 

 Boydell, of London, and manufactured by the ex- 

 hibiter. 



Wm. Crowley and Sons, of Newport Pagnell, entered 

 a set of Ploughs, invented, improved, and manufactured 

 by themselves; consisting of three ploughs each way, 

 connected together so as to work at one uniform depth 

 over uneven surfaces, with an apparatus for expanding 

 or contracting them to bring them on to new ground. 



Thomas Ricketts, of Buckingham, sent his Patent 

 Rotary Steam Cultivator, consisting of a 10 -horse- 

 power locomotive engine with a horizontal shaft behind, 

 driven by pitch chains and revolving in radial links in 

 the direction contrary to that in which the wheels are 

 travelling. On this shaft are placed tines, spades, or 

 cutters of other forms, which enter the soil at the bottom 

 of the furrow, cut upwards, and either break up or in- 

 vert as required. 



J. and F. Howard, of Bedford, sent a set of Smith's 

 Patent Apparatus for cultivating land by steam power, 

 invented by Wm. Smith, of Woolston, and manufac- 

 tured by themselves. This consists of an ordinary 8- 



.horse portable steam engine, with windlass, leather 

 driving band, wireropes, pulleys, turning bow, ploughs, 

 and cultivators, all complete for work. 



And, lastly, J. Fowler, jun., of Cornhill, sent his 

 steam plough, consisting of an ordinary 10-horse engine 

 with windlass to attach and detach, and anchor, with 

 four-furrow balance plough frame, with scarifier tines 

 to take the place of the plough mould-board. The trials 

 were commenced on July 13th, in a field of two-year-old 

 seeds, the soil a light sandy loam, upon a subsoil of silt 

 or sand ; the land having been reclaimed originally from 

 the bed of the river Dee. The soil, though naturally of 

 a very light description, offered considerable resistance 

 owing to its surface being firmly bound together by a 

 luxuriant growth oi couch and other grasses, and re- 

 presented a fair trial ground for two-horse work. Indeed 

 a dynamometrical experiment with one of Howard's PL 

 ploughs, drawn by two horses, and taking a G by 10- 

 inch furrow, showed thai the resistance offered was 

 equal to 32 stones, or 4 cwts. 



From various causes the arrangements for working 

 Boydell's engine were not completed in the time ap- 

 pointed for the trials, and although it subsequently was 

 at work, exhibiting its great traction powers, both with 

 Coleman's cultivator and Williams' frame of ploughs at- 

 tached, we are not able, for the above reason, to give 

 any report upon its work or comparative merits. 



The set of ploughs entered for trial by Crowley and 

 Sens was unprovided with any motive power, which had 

 to be supplied by Fowler's engine. This fact alone 

 placed them beyond the boundaries of the competition ; 

 the principal element of which was the power, and not 

 the mere tool or implement by which the work was to 

 be performed. On trial, however, the set of ploughs 

 got deranged, and was at once withdrawn. 



The rotary steam cultivator of Ricketts, although 

 unsuccessful, demands more than a passing notice, as it 

 contains many points well worthy of consideration, 

 especially by those who think a locomotive preferable 

 to a fixed traction power, and a rotary to a horizontal 

 rectilinear motion. The engine was of the ordinary 

 locomotive construction, with double cylinders and 

 reducing gear- work for driving one of the carrying wheels. 

 It was steered by the fore-carriage, and three men were 

 required when at work in the field. The princijile of 

 action in this cultivator is a horizontal transverse shaft, 

 driven by an endless pitch chain from a pinion on the 

 crank shaft, attached to the hind part of the engine, and 

 revolving in radial links at a small elevation above the 

 ground. The axis of this transverse shaft (on which 

 several different forms of cutters were fixed according 

 to the nature of the work required) is parallel to that of 

 the engine wheels, but a contrary motion is given to it, so 

 that the cut or passage of the implement through the 

 soil is with the direction of the engine's progressive mo- 

 tion. 



By this arangement the cutters enter the soil or fur- 

 row from below, and working upwards to the surface, 

 carry with them the separated pieces, and drop them, as 

 their revolution is continued, in an inverted position. 

 This is a new principle of action in rotary cultivation : 

 it substitutes a tearing for a compressing force in divid- 

 ing the soil, and completes the inversion of the separated 

 pieces by moving through half a revolution (or an angle 

 of 180 degs.) instead of three-quarters of a revolution 

 (or an angle of 270 degs.), which is required by the or- 

 dinary mode of applying rotating cultivators. 



