THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



511 



THE WANT OF COMPETITION FOR THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY'S 



STEAM-PLOUGH PRIZE. 



Mr. Fowler was the sole competitor for the Highland 

 and Agricultural Society's sleain-plough piize. Where 

 was Mr. Boydell ? Was he afraid that his tremendous 

 power of draught, and his amazing facility for traversing 

 the difficult surface of a field, would not be appreciated 

 by the Scotch farmers unless his ploughing were done 

 better than we have yet seen by the defective imple- 

 ments he has hitherto worlted? Whwe was Mr. Smith, 

 of Woolston ? Had he rather work out, on his own farm, 

 a system of culture with subsoilers and scarifiers, and 

 show the world results on a large scale, than simply 

 contest for a public prize ? Where was Mr. Williams, 

 with his semi-steam semi-team arrangement for plough- 

 ing ? Where was Fisken's apparatus, that gave such 

 good promise last year? Where was Mr. Usher's 

 locomotive engine, with its rotary ploughs ? Is the com- 

 pany formed to carry out this invention to be no more 

 heard "of? Where was Mr. Crosskillj with the new 

 Romaine Digger ? Where were the four or five other 

 steam-cultivator schemes, entered in the Salisbury 

 catalogue, but not yet forthcoming ? Perhaps the terms 

 of the offer of the £200 were such as to exclude all 

 machines which do not strictly plough. Perhaps the 

 shy and scanty style of advertising, the time and place 

 of competition, may account for some of the non- 

 appearances. 



iJut if these inventions were not in the field on this 

 occasion me of them have displayed their capa- 

 bilities in other places, and an omnipresent press can 

 collate their performances with those which have been 

 so brilliant at Stirling. 



Many trials of the "traction engine" having been 

 reported, we need only say here that various manu- 

 facturers seem to have taken up the " endless railway" 

 in earnest,and the latest advance we know of is an engine 

 constructed of some 16-liorse power, mounted Upon two 

 large wheels, with a single steerage wheel in front, a clever 

 arrangement of friction boxes, allowing both the main 

 wheels to be driven while turning a curve. On a common 

 road this engine, 10 tons in weight, dragged 25 tons 

 weight of carriages at the pace of a horse's walk, by 

 itself turning within a circle of 30 feet diameter. We 

 believe it to be clear that ordinary portable engines 

 may be made to propel themselves along roads with 

 Tery moderate gradients, without danger or injury to 

 the boiler tubes; and, lhanl^s to the " endless rail," 

 we shall soon see cartage of various sorts transacted 

 on our farms by steam-power. 



Fisken's ingenious method of conveying power from 

 a stationary engine to a travelling implement has not 

 been sufficiently laboured upon in its mechanical de- 

 tails, and is waiting, we believe, to be brought out in 

 an improved form. Still, last year, the committee of 



the Stirling General Agricultui*al Association reported 

 very favourably respecting it. The land on which it 

 was tested at Stewart Hall was a clover-lea, carrying a 

 second crop some eight or ten inches high, the soil a 

 clay of medium tenacity. The engine was of five or 

 six-horse power, the endless-rope was driven with a 

 velocity of 30 to 35 miles per hour, and the field of a 

 triangular form, so as to try how the ropes would ad- 

 just themselves to different lengths of work. The 

 character of the ploughing was quite satisfactory, 

 though the constructive details of the machinery were 

 defective ; so that the Committee highly approved of 

 the principle of action, especially for its " general 

 applicability" ; and five of the most extensive arable 

 farmers connected with the Association agreed to have 

 portions of their farms, varying up to forty acres in 

 extent, ploughed during the winter at the price of 

 8s. Gd. per acre. Undoubtedly the principle of em- 

 ploying a light rope running at a high velocity will be 

 used on very hilly land to drive the rotary digger, 

 whenever this shall establish itself as an effective tool. 

 But, for making the farmer's present portable-engines 

 available for steam-ploughing, we have Mr. Williams' 

 method of affixing the windlass to the engine by a 

 timber framing, both travelling upon their own wheels, 

 and motion being communicated by an endless pitch- 

 chain. We have heard of another scheme, already 

 manufactured, in which an ordinary engine is simply 

 run up on to the top of the windlass, and travels with it 

 as required ; and Mr. Fowler has an arrangement by 

 which the engine is placed between two strong beams, 

 forming part of the windlass-frame, and is supported 

 partly by one pair of its own wheels and partly by the 

 windlass. Many farmers will prefer this form of 

 machine to that in which an entirely new engine, com- 

 bined with a winding-apparatus, is required; partly 

 because the first outlay is less, and principally because 

 of their already possessing an engine which is not 

 sufficiently engaged in thrashing and other work. A 

 considerable force of horses being requisite to pull this 

 machinery from field to field, the more expensive 

 engine, which is able to propel itself on ordinary roads, 

 is of course advisable for purchasers who meditate the 

 performance of contract-ploughing throughout a dis- 

 trict. 



The great assistance of a steam-engine able to culti- 

 vate, even though it may not be applied to the plough, 

 is being very extensively felt in consequence of the 

 adoption of Mr. Smith's apparatus in many parts of 

 the kingdom. Scarifying of a deep and most effective 

 kind is accomplished at the rate of six or eight acres a 

 day for a total expense of 7s. 6d. per acre, while all the 

 horses on the farm are simultaneously engaged in 

 ploughing or other tillage, so that au unprecedented 



