348 



THE FARMER'S \JA(JAZh\E. 



horizontal drum (9). As the shaft (i) revolves, the 

 pinion (0) engages with the spur wheel (n), and giving 

 motion to its shaft (m) causes the drum (7) slowly to 

 revolve through the medium of the endless screw (p). 

 A rope is passed round the drum (7), led outwards, and 

 passed around a pulley in the anchorage a-head of the 

 engine, and returned and fixed to the carriage. As the 

 drum (rj) revolves, it winds up the rope, and causes the 

 engine and windlass to advance slowly across the field, 

 the motion of the " self-adjusting anchor" at the oppo- 

 site end of the field being coincident with it. 



To adapt the mechanism to the various kinds of field- 

 work, Mr. Fowler has arranged his " frame '' as a scari- 

 fier and broadshare. An improvement has also been 

 made in the mechanism of the "self-adjusting anchor," 

 by which it is made to progress as the field is ploughed. 

 In the form described in the article to which we have 

 alluded above, the rope which gave traction to the plough 

 frame passed over a horizontal pulley, having its bear- 

 ings in the anchor-frame; by the motion of its revolu- 

 tion it worked a worm-wheel and screw, which in time 

 gave motion to a pulley (b), round which was coiled a 

 subsidiary rope, the further extremity of which was 

 secured to a fixed anchor, at some distance from the 

 moveable anchor. As the pulley (b) revolved, it wound 

 up the rope, dragging along with it the anchor-frame, 

 the disc wheels of which cut their way in the soil in a 

 line, and with a motion coincident with that of the 

 engine and windlass at the opposite headland. In the 

 improved anchor, the horizontal pulley, round which the 

 endless traction-rope attached to the plough-frame is 

 passed, is still retained ; but by a powerful system of 

 toothed gearing it gives motion to the barrel of the anchor 

 hauling-rope, the barrel revolving vertically in bear- 

 ings on the upper side of the anchor-frame. The barrel 

 shaft carries a large spur-wheel, which receives motion 

 from a pinion on a second shaft, deriving motion by bevil 

 gearing from the horizontal pulley round which the 

 traction-rope parses. 



Those desirous of information as to the quantity and 

 quality of work done at Chester by the improved appa- 

 ratus of Mr. Fowler, here described, may refer with ad- 

 vantage to an able report given in this Journal, under 

 date July 19th, 1858. We here present a few notes 

 on this subject kindly furnished us by Mr. Fowkx. The 

 weekly and average expenses are thus stated : 



One engine £1 4 



One ploughman 14 



Two boys 12 



One horse and water-cart,. .. 1 10 



Weekly expenses £4 10 



Removing from field to field, say average 15 acres, three 

 horses half-a-day, besides water-cart horse, 78. Gd., or 

 6d. per acre. Coals at 20s. per ton, 9d. to 2s. an acre. 

 Wear and tear and interest on cost of apparatus Is. Gd. 

 per acre. The following are estimates of the work which 

 the various " powers " of apparatus can effect : A ten- 

 horse engine will plough per week 30 to 35 acres of 

 heavy, 40 to 50 of light land, and will scarify 40 to 70 

 acres — the cost being thus 4b. 7d. for light, and 7s. for 

 heavy land. An eight-horse engine will plough from 



20 to 30 acres of heavy, 35 to 40 of light soil, and will 

 fccarify from 40 to 50 acres per week — the cost thus 

 being 7s. Od. for heavy, and 5s. for light soils. A seven- 

 horse engine will plough from 17 to 20 acres of heavy, 

 30 to 35 of light, and will scarify from 30 to 45 acres 

 per week, at a cost of 9i. for heavy, and os. 9d, for light 

 soils. 



The following is the estimate of working expenses, 

 and of work done, as given by the judges at Chester, in 

 their report to tbc Council — 



Daily Expenses. 



£ 8. d. 

 Eiipinoer .. .. .. .. .. .. .'> 



Plou;;h and ancbormcii .. .. .. .. G 



Two boys .. .. .. .. .. ..020 



Water-cart 050 



Coals 10 cwt 10 



Oil, &c 10 



Removal 040 



Interest at 5 per cent, and wear and tear at 15 

 per cent, on first cost (£650), assuming 200 

 as the number of working days in the year 13 



£2 6 

 The cost of ploughing is thus estimated — 



Per Acre. 

 8. d. 



Cf lifrht land ..6 



according to the rate of work done in 

 trials ; or taking G acres per day as the 

 average, at . • . . . . ..72 



Of heavy land .. .. .. ..9 2 



Of trenching 18 4 



Comparing this with horse power, it appears that the 

 cost of ploughing per acre in light land would be 

 8s., or an increase of 33 per cent.; the heavy land at 

 12s. Gd., or nearly the same rate of increase; while the 

 trenching could not have been effected at all by means 

 of horse power ; so that, if done by hand labour, it 

 would cost lOd. per pole, or £6 10s. 4d. per acre, or 

 more than seven times as much. 



Those who witnessed with regret the somewhat crude 

 arrangements and the practical difficulties attendant 

 upon the operation of the mechanism by which Boy- 

 dell's traction engine was applied last year at Salisbury 

 to the ploughing of land, had the gratification this year 

 at Chestei* of seeing, by better-considered arrangements, 

 how powerful, and at the same time how easily con- 

 trolled, an agent the endless railway engine offers to the 

 farmer in the cultivation of his soil. Contrasted with 

 the loose and unworkmanlike way in which ploughing 

 and cultivation were attempted to be performed by means 

 of the traction engine last year at Salisbury, the plan 

 at Chester exhibited a business-like capability which 

 augured well for favourable results. Taking a retro- 

 spective glance at last year's arrangement, we find that 

 the plan proposed consisted of a method of attaching 

 several ploughs to the traction engine in such a manner 

 that the last of the series could be pulled up in a straight 

 lino to the headland, or the extremity of its bout, while 

 the engine itself was in the act of turning at the headland , 

 the first ploughs of the series having completed their 

 bout. This was effected by connecting the forward part 

 of the plough beam to a bar, which was inclined at an 

 angle to the line of end of traction engine, the bar being 

 connected at one end by a long chain, and at the other 



