THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



385 



terms may be attributed the vagueness and uncertainty 

 ofthe announcement of tbe prize offered by the Council 

 of tbe Royal Society. As given, it seems as if its framers 

 had been disposed to please at once tbe two great parties 

 — the advocates of rotary cultivation, who have doomed 

 the plough to a speedy death as old and effete ; and those 

 who think tbe plough the best implement, and that it 

 only requires a new power to make it perfect. The re- 

 sult of this attempt might, however, have been practi- 

 cally to exclude all parties who used the plough ; for it 

 is difficult to conceive how one thing can be a substitute 

 for the same thing — a plough for a plough or a spade 

 for a spade. Tlie work done by either is definite in its 

 character, no matter by what power the implement is 

 worked. Had the announcement been simply "for a 

 cultivator worked by steam for properly preparing the 

 soil" for the after-process of farming, or had the words 

 " economical substitute for the plough as worked by 

 horses, and for the spade as used by manual labour," 

 been used, all doubt would have been removed, if in- 

 deed it had ever arisen. As it is, misunderstanding is 

 very likely to take place. 



The competitors for this great prize were four in num- 

 ber — Boydell, Williams, Hall, and Fowlor. It militates 

 nothing against the principle of steam-cultivation to say 

 that the result of the trials has been a disappointment 

 — has, in fact, put back steam-cultivation in the estima- 

 tion of many who were disposed to be sanguine as to its 

 triumphs. The fact is, too much has been expected of 

 it. In the ardour of anticipation its transition state has 

 been overlooked. It is but the sheerest folly to expect 

 that a new thing can be a perfect thing. Had Fulton, 

 when his steam-boat moved from the wharf, no doubters 

 around him ? and when the engines refused to work, and 

 left him awhile motionless in the stream, did no 

 doubters then laugh loudly ? — to laugh afterwards, to 

 be sure, as many since then have done, the wrong way, 

 when steam navigation was an accomplished thing, and 

 when the waters of the Atlantic, as well as those of the 

 placid river, were paddle-ploughed. This failure of steam 

 cultivation — for the most sanguine cannot call it a suc- 

 cess — has not made thinking men lose faith in its ulti- 

 mate accomplishment. We do not say that it will be 

 accomplished by any of the methods now before the 

 public ; but that the giant power of steam will some day 

 or other be used easily and economically for the cultiva- 

 tion of the land, we decidedly believe ; in this we but 

 think with many of our eminent engineers ; to think other- 

 wise would indeed be a libel on the mechanical genius of 

 the day. What is wanted is mechanism which can be 

 taken out at any time to the field by the ordinary farm- 

 labourer, without involving much hard work or difficulty 

 in locomotion — mechanism which will do its work with- 

 out necessitating continual repairs, or the attendance of 

 a party possessed of more mechanical ability than usually 

 falls to the lot of farm-servants. This is what is wanted, 

 and is certainly what has not yet been brought out or 

 effected by any single inventor. What a combination of 

 the results of the labours of all the inventors would 

 effect, it were hard to say ; we are inclined to think that 

 this combination would go far to reali?e the essentials of 



a good system of steam cultivation. Inventors are not, 

 we are afraid, freed from jealousy which tinges many a 

 cheek ; and to effect the fusion of interests necessary to 

 obtain the above combination, might test diplomacy 

 as much as in the celebrated case of Lumley's pas de 

 qiuitre. 



Of the four plans competing, two were on the plan of 

 " direct," two on " indirect" traction. Ofthe former 

 class, Boydell's was the most successful. It undoubtedly 

 possesses wonderful power of locomotion. It left the 

 show-yard with its tank of water, and ascended to the 

 trial field, which was situated on the top of a high hill, 

 with apparent ease. Some idea of the difficulty of the 

 task may be obtained when we mention that the rate of 

 ascent up the incline leading to the trial field was one in 

 seven and a half. In ploughing, the engine dragged 

 aftei' it six ploughs, each with an attendant — a clumsy 

 enough arrangement, and which, whether from the fault 

 of the attendants, or the construction of the jdoughs, or 

 the nature of the land, we do not now say, executed but 

 indifferent work. It also dragged after it, at another 

 period of the day, one of Coleman's large cultivators, 

 with 11 tines, and which requires in ordinary circum- 

 stances from 14 to IG horses. The work was said to be 

 well done ; but, in commencing operations, we saw an 

 amount of " tinkering" — this is the most expressive 

 word we can use — and a lack of preparation, which no 

 farmer would tolerate in his field in everyday practice. 

 There can be but one opinion as to the efficiency of Mr. 

 Boydell's engine in overcoming obstacles and traversing 

 difficult ground ; its capabilities as a substitute for horses 

 in ploughing will raise a diversity of opinion, many by 

 no means favourable. 



The principal peculiarity of Mr. Hall's direct-traction 

 engine is the employment of high-pressure steam-power 

 300 to 400 per square inch. The engine is provided 

 with expansion gear, which enables the steam to be cut 

 off from l-18th up to half stroke. The result of the ar- 

 rangements is an exceedingly light and economically- 

 worked engine. Mr. Hall applies Boydell's endless 

 railway to his engine, and intends to apply a plough of 

 his own invention. 



Of the two plans on the indirect-traction system— 

 namely, Mr. Williams' and Mr. Fowler's — the latter 

 was decidedly the most successful. The work we saw 

 performed by it was satisfactory, and it was very quickly 

 performed. After the engine and plant were dragged — 

 at the expense of no small labour and time, however — 

 into position, the work was gone through in such a 

 business-like manner that fairly redeemed the trials, and 

 retrieved somewhat the character of steam ploughing. 

 Although much has to be done to simplify the arrange- 

 ments, and place the mechanism adopted within the easy 

 range of ordinary farm skill and intelligence, still we 

 think, of all the plans yet introduced, this of Mr. 

 Fowler's is the most likely to succeed, and presents, at all 

 events, many features of business-like utility. Mr. Fowler 

 has done more, we think, in steam-ploughing, and on a 

 commercial basis — that is, ploughing by contract — than 

 all the others put together. We heard a well-known 

 farmer, who farms very largely in a district where Mr, 



