THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



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of (80) wheels and axles, thirteen of (81) Whipple- trees, 

 and four of (82) windlasses. What a contrast in this 

 imposing list of eighty-two classes of appliances which 

 science and art have brought forward to aid the practice 

 of agriculture, to that which a Show held some thirty or 

 fifty years ago would have presented ! Then, but a few 

 names would have exhausted the list ; and the plough, 

 the spade, the harrow, and the roller, with here and 

 there a rude attempt. at a sowing machine, would have 

 comprised the whole, or nearly the whole, range of agri- 

 cultural mechanism exhibited. And could any one have 

 foreseen the vast strides which agriculture would take 

 in less than half-a-century, and ventured to have made 

 public its fore-shadowed results, he would have been 

 set down as a wild enthusiast — a mere day-dreamer. 

 Yet in truth, the advance which agricultural mechanism 

 has made has been far beyond the wildest dreams, and 

 the most enthusiastic conjectures or fancies ; it has 

 actually outstripped imagination, and put to flight the 

 doubts of the wavering, and silenced the sneers of those 

 who looked upon agriculture as a calling "stale, un- 

 profitable, and slow," not worthy to be ranked as a 

 science, or likely to be stirred with the vitality of 

 modern enterprise. The best answer to such objections, 

 and the most convincing proof that agriculture has now 

 attained to all the dignity of a science, and is not behind 

 any in the energy of its action, or the comprehensive- 

 ness of its aims, is such a gathering of the appliances 

 which are designed to aid its practice, as that in which 

 we have this year been privileged to take part, at the 

 quaint old town of Warwick. In the wide range of 

 mechanism displayed to his inspection, the visitor 

 could see in the ploughs, the harrows, the rollers, 

 and cognate implements for preparing the soil — in the 

 drills for depositing the seed — in the harvesting ma- 

 chines for gathering in the produce of the land, and in 

 the apparatus for preparing the same for market, or for 

 fattening the stock — moat gratifying evidence that effi- 

 ciency and economy in daily practice would be ensured 

 so far as mechanism was calculated to effect that object, 

 and see also in its wide range some promise of the still 

 greater help it would afford under more improved and 

 modified circumstances. Nor would it be difficult for 

 the visitor to perceive that this improvement and modi- 

 fication would be brought about by that power which in 

 other callings has so wonderfully helped their progress, 

 smoothed their difficulties, and daily registered new 

 triumphs of its application. We allude to the power of 

 steam. It is the power which opens up and controls 

 the future; it is that which, rightly applied, will enable 

 the mechanician, and, through him, the farmer, to win 

 new triumphs, to overcome obstacles, and, still farther, 

 to cause the earth to yield an increase of her fruit. The 

 same power which has bridged the ocean with vessels 

 defying wind and tide, and brought distant places near 

 through the medium of the thundering railway car, will, 

 when taken out amid green fields and waving corn, effect 

 wonders as useful in their results as these. It is the 

 power which shall enable man to change sterile spots 

 into fertile fields — tracts now gloomy with the black 

 moss, glad then with the green trophies of the husband- 

 man — wild wastes, over which the wintry winds now 

 send the sand-heaps in clouds, or wliistle amid the sea- 

 weeds or the marshy plants, to be then covered with 

 laughing meadows or smiling corn-fields. " Such," as 

 we have before remarked, " and no other, do we deem 

 the future of agriculture aided by steam likely to be; 

 and it behoves those interested to consider well how best 

 they can aid its progress. The engineer has done nobly 

 his part ; with his mechanical genius, and the patient 

 perseverance, which is ever its concomitant, he has 

 effected much ; it remains for the landowner and the 

 farmer to so further aid him, by doing their part, that he 



may do more. It is only by a conjunction of effort — 

 the farmer in his field, and the engineer at his me- 

 chanism — that rapid progress is to be secured. Each 

 performing his respective duties, and performing them 

 carefully and well, we may soon see the good time, so 

 often sung about as coming, come at last, and, with the 

 blessings of Providence on their efforts, witness the pro- 

 phecies of old receive their consummation, when the 

 sterile places shall be made glad, the desert be made to 

 blossom like the rose, and even the very hill tops fruitful 

 with the harvest, which makes happy the homes of men, 

 lightens the labour of the field, and gladdens the gaieties 

 of the earth." 



Apologizing for the length of these introductory 

 remarks, we proceed now to glance at the leading 

 features of the Warwick Show. As our readers are 

 doubtless aware, the various machines and implements 

 forming the range of modern agricultural mechanism 

 are not all subjected to trial on the occasions of 

 the shows of the Royal Society. To ensure effi- 

 ciency, and to prevent confusion from having too 

 many at work for examination, the machines and imple- 

 ments are divided into leading classes, one of which is 

 taken every year for trial. The class in rotation for 

 this year comprised those connected with the " culture 

 of the soil," as ploughs, clodcrushers, harrows, and cul- 

 tivators. The leading prize was one of £50 for the best 

 application of steam power to the cultivation of the soil. 

 For this prize seven competitors were entered — namely 

 (1), Mr. John Fowler, of London; (2) Mr. Smith, of 

 Woolston; (3) Messrs. Coleman, of Chelmsford; (4) 

 Messrs. Chandler and Oliver, represented by Messrs. 

 llobey, of Lincoln; (5) Mr. Romaine, represented by 

 Mr. Nash, engineer. Isle of Dogs, London ; (6) Mr. 

 Samuel Beamish, of Rochdale ; (7) Mr. Crowley, of 

 Newport Pagnel. Of these four were disqualified for 

 trial ; so that the three— Messrs. Fowler (1), Smith (2), 

 and Chandler and Oliver (4)— were alone engaged 

 in the competition. Of these three Mr. Fowler was 

 the successful competitor. 



A full report of the trials of the steam cultivatora 

 having already appeared in this Journal, we are spared 

 the necessity of giving the details, and are at liberty 

 therefore to proceed to examine the mechanism of the 

 three sets of apparatus entered for the competition. Of 

 two of these— namely, Mr. Fowler's and Mr. Smith's 

 of Woolston — we gave in our report last year of the 

 Show at Chester full and detailed descriptions ; we beg 

 to refer the reader to this, contenting ourselves now with 

 a notice of the improvements recently effected in Mr, 

 Fowler's apparatus. 



Since the trial at Chester last year Mr. Fowler has 

 succeeded in very much simplifying the mechanism em- 

 ployed in his steam-ploughing apparatus. The driving 

 drum is attached to the centre of an ordinary portable 

 steam-engine, and is placed between two pulleys, round 

 which the wire rope passes ; sufficient grip is obtained 

 by giving the hauling rope two three-quarter turns 

 round the driving drum. The engine is worked along 

 the headland by a chain attached to an anchor fixed in 

 the field, and passing round a drum placed horizontally 

 in front of the engine. The lower flange of the drum is 

 toothed, and with this an endless screw gears. The 

 screw is worked by bevel gearing from the upright shaft 

 which gives motion to the driving drum. To assist the 

 apparatus into its working position, the power of the 

 steam-engine is employed, a pitch wheel and chain being 

 used for this purpose; all that the horse has to do being 

 merely to guide the apparatus in its progression. Mr. 

 Fowler has also greatly improved the self-acting anchor, 

 perhaps the most striking and ingenious feature of his 

 system of ploughing by steam. The frame of the 

 anchor is made entirely of wrought-iron, the wiodiJ'' 



