404 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
tion of the utility and practicability of the application of steam power 
to the cultivation of crops. 
Redmond’s steam-plow.—Plate 17 represents a steam-plow patented by 
Owen Redmond, of Rochester, New York. The illustration is copied 
from a photograph of the machine at work in the field; a gang of 
six plows, designed to go with the engine, has since been constructed, 
intended to be operated by one man, who may also be the fireman. The 
machine is five feet ten inches wide and weighs less than 5,000 lbs. The 
boiler is placed directly between the two driving-wheels. The tender 
carries a two-barrel water-tank, upon which is the seat of the engineer. 
The hold of the engine on the ground is secured by the protrusion of a 
series of fluke-shaped anchors through the rim of each wheel, which are 
pressed into the ground by a cam on a friction roller on the stem of the 
anchor, the cam being held by a coil spring, which gives if the anchor 
meets with unusual obstruction. The force required to drive the anchors 
is a lifting one on the wheels, tending to prevent them from sinking into 
the soil. It is claimed that this machine can plow three acres an hour. 
Lord Dunmore’s steam-plow.—Plate 18 is an illustration of Lord Dun- 
more’s three-furrow balance steam-plow with traction engine, exhibited 
in the presence of a committee of the Royal Highland and Agricultural 
Society. Lord Dunmore had been interested and successful in experi- 
ments in cultivating, pulling out tree-roots, carrying timber, hauling 
railway luggage, cutting hay and straw, working saw-mill, pumping 
water, and various other useful work, in which successful competition 
was maintained with horse labor; and he determined to test fully its 
capabilities for plowing, but was unsuccessful until he invented the 
three-furrowed balance-plow shown in the engraving. The experimen- 
tal trial, after a heavy fall of rain, upon land untouched by plow share 
for forty years, gave much promise of future success. It cut clean and 
straight furrows six inches by ten inches, five acres per day, at a cost of 
19s. 9d., or about $1 per acre. 
FOOD PRODUCTS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN 
INDIANS. 
An inquiry into the means of subsistence of the aborigines is attended 
with much curious interest. It discloses many plants almost unknown 
to the people, and very little known to science, which may be utilized 
in the arts and in food products. This paper has been prepared with 
reference to so probable a result. The articles of food hereafter enum- 
erated may not be employed by and may be unknown even to such tribes 
as receive annuities, or which, being partly agricultural, dwell in villages, 
and are otherwise provided for; but the wilder Indians, who roam over 
thousands of square miles of territory, are almost entirely dependent 
upon them for existence. Their habits have naturally become no- 
madic; the camping-ground at one place being exhausted, a removal to 
another is imperative. Sometimes in autumn, when fruits and grain 
are ripe, the women gather a small store for winter. Exposed to the 
vicissitudes of the weather, improvident and reckless of the future, 
depending on their bows and arrows, their nets and traps, gorging 
themselves when the opportunity is offered, and stolidly submitting 
to starvation in seasons of scarcity, and at all times indolent, the art of 
cultivating a crop is either unknown to or despised by them. When the 
