THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



21 



To have ploughed the 70 acres in fifieen days by horses 

 would have required twenty to twenty-four horses, 

 working five or six ploughs. But the force of teams 

 kept upon the farm would have been perhaps ten days 

 longer in doing the same extent of work ; and the wheat- 

 seeding has not only been forwarded thus much, but has 

 been still further accelerated by the horses getting on 

 with harrowing and dril.ing while the steam-plough is at 

 work — simultaneously, instead of having to wait for their 

 own slow ploughing. And the setting-in of a week's 

 frost has still more strongly enforced the advantage 

 of this expedition. The steam-ploughing has been well 

 done, the slices are well-turned, and so shaken by the 

 rapid motion of the implement, and loose from the 

 absence of trampling, that less reduction of the surface 

 by harrows is found necessary, and the ground is in a 

 better condition for the seed to strike in. The fields are 

 hilly, and by no means rectangular ; yet the engine on 

 one headland and anchorage on the other travel without 

 obstacle or difficulty, the rope being let out or taken up 

 to suit the fluctuating length of the furrow, which varies 

 from 400 to 200 yards and less. In one field, the 

 plough, turning three heavy furrows (though four fur- 

 rows at a time on all but the strongest land), descended 

 into and mounted out of a partially-filled marl pit 20 

 feet deep, the sides sloping with a *' batter" of one in 

 two, and in some places an angle of 45°. 



What have been the items of expense for these fifteen 

 days' work ? 



Labour : 3 men and 2 boys, coal, oil, and 



water-carting, about £'22 10 



Extra for removals (only 2 horses being 

 required, owing to the engine being 

 locomotive) 18 



23 8 

 Wear and tear, and interest, say 20 per cent. : 

 On Engine.. £^20^ 

 On apparatus 420 I charged on 200 days 



f in the year 12 11 3 



£840j 



£35 19 3 



The working expenses on the 70 acres 



are thus 6 8 per acre. 



The wear and tear, interest, &c 3 7 



Total about. 



10 3 per acre. 



The cost by horse labour would have been one-third 

 to one-half more, besides the work being so far behind 

 hand and so much less efficiently performed. 



We should add here, that several days' delay occurred 

 at first, by the fracture of one of the spur-wheels on the 

 windlass, the engine being too powerful for the machine, 

 and with stoppage which arose from a new and untried 

 attachment of the hooks to the ropes. This is now 

 rectified. 



One of the chief points of interest about Mr. Bird's 

 operations is, that the steam-ploughing machinery 

 is almost independent of horses, as it travels from field 

 to field, or from one farm to another, with only a single 

 horse to steer the engine ; even this, however, is un- 



necessary, as the engine may be steered by hand ; but 

 a hoise being required to lead out the rope, &c., in the 

 field, he is put into a pair of shafts on his way there. 

 One horse is also employed to take the balance plough, 

 while the windlass smd the anchorage are both yoked 

 behind the engine. To shift a portable engine with the 

 whole machinery, would require tea horses, if going a 

 considerable distance ; four horses, if merely from one 

 field to an adjacent one, in which case the team can 

 make several journeys in a half-day. If we take five 

 horses as the average number required, the cost of the 

 six removals would have been, say, 43s. instead of 18s.; 

 that is, the expenses of ploughing would have been more 

 by 4d. per acre ; and in the case of travelling a few 

 miles, the cost would be 8d. or Is. an acre more 

 with a comir.on portable than wiih a locomotive enipne. 

 Of course we must deduct something for the cheaper 

 prime cost of the simple portable ; but the saving of a 

 small price per acre is of less importance than the ad- 

 vantage of being able to take the apparatus to its work 

 without hindering the team from the sowing or other 

 urgent operations they may be engaged about. The 

 chief advantage of the locomotive engine, however, will 

 be in connexion with a thrashing-machine. 



We said the engine is disproportionately powerful for 

 the windlass. In fact, it was not built for the purpose 

 of being used with it ; and while nominally of 12-horEe 

 power, in reality works at some 25 to 30 horse power, 

 at 60 lbs. pressure, or more. It is designed and con- 

 structed by Mr. John Smith, of Coven, near Wolverhamp- 

 ton, specially for traversing common roads and arable 

 land. The tubular boiler is mounted upon a wrought- 

 iron framing, and balinced midway upon plummer- 

 blocks, so that it can be easily and instantly adjusted by 

 screw, and preserved in a horizontal position when tra- 

 versing an incline. In going up a short hill this regu- 

 lation is not found necessary, as the " swill" of the 

 water appears to keep the tubes sufficiently cool ; but 

 when standing for some time on a sloping headland of a 

 field, &c., maintaining the level of the boiler is of great 

 moment and safety. The cylinders are not attached to 

 the boiler, but are placed underneath it, within the iron 

 framing, and the steam passes by a pipe from the top of 

 a high stfeam dome, and through a stuffing-box at the 

 point of suspension of the boiler. There is also another 

 stuffing-box, through which the water enters the boiler 

 from the feed-pipe ; and the exhaust steam is conducted 

 to the chimney by a short piece of flexible pipe. The 

 hind-wheels and fore-wheels are about 9 feet apart, so 

 that a depression in the ground makes but a slight al- 

 teration in the position of the boiler; and the balance- 

 motion allows it to be adjusted so as to continue hori- 

 zontal on an incline of 1 in 10. The propulsion is 

 effected by an endless pitch-chain from a pinion on the 

 crank-shaft (under the boiler, and supported in bearings 

 on the framing) to a cog-wheel on the hind- wheel axle; 

 each travelling wlieel being set tight or loose on the 

 axle by means of rings, which clasp like a brake. An- 

 other peculiarity is that the whole is supported upon 

 strong springs ; and the weight— about 7 tons — is eo 

 distributed that rather more than half rests upon the 



