STATE REPORTS OF AGRICULTURE. 511 
Mr. P. C. Compton, of Ames, Story County, Iowa, gives the following 
account of his experience in plowing by steam on the prairies, the natural 
place for such operations. The machine was invented by Mr. Thomas 
S. Minnis, of Meadville, Pennsylvania: 
The machine (of 15-horse power) consists of a boiler, an engine on each side working 
en the same shaft, a quarter apart, after the manner of railroad locomotives and the 
usual connections, all resting on two runners, six feet apart and nearly eight feet long, 
something like a sled.. These runners glide over rollers fixed in endless-chain tracks. 
The tracks revolve in an ellipse, and the drive-wheels move the chains and propel 
the machine forward or backward by the same motion. Hither side may be run independ- 
ently of the other. By this means, when drawing a load, it is easily turned or 
guided. When ready for work, its weight is about eight tons. The width of the endless- 
chain tracks is one foot, giving a contact with the ground of about 2,300 square inches, 
and a traction power limited only by the weight. 
Attached to the machine were five 14-inch breaking-plows in a solid frame, so ganged 
as to turn an aggregate of a little over six feet. We ran out on the prairie, a crowd 
followmg tosee the machine sink in the first slough. They were disappointed. It 
rode across more lightly or with less impression than did the empty wagous which fol- 
lowed. It drew the five plows through the toughest prairie sod, frequently beam deep, 
on up and down grade, and through hard and soft ground. The “traction” power of the 
machine was not fully tested. It frequently drew the plows with only one side in gear, 
showing this power to be equal to drawing twice a8 many plows. In this respect it 
filled what Professor Brainard, in his excellent ‘ History of American Inventions for 
Cultivation by Steam,” pronounces the great want of all machines heretofore tried. It. 
rode over dead furrows, ditches and rough places as smoothly as a sled, touching only 
- the highest points. It also ran over plowed ground with scarcely an appreciable in- 
crease of power, was under perfect control, and could be moved either way to an inch. 
Tn short, it ran easier, proved stronger, and performé@l every way, in the main, better 
than was anticipated, and in the essential necessities of such a machineis a success. 
MISSOURI. 
The fifth annual report of the State Board of Agriculture of Missouri 
comprises the transactions of the board; abstracts of the proceedings 
ofthe county agricultural societies for 1869; essays on agricultural topics; 
proceedings of the State Horticultural Society; and the second annual 
report on the noxious, beneficial, and other insects of Missouri, by Chas. 
Y. Riley, State entomologist. This report is made to the State board, and 
is full of instructive information, detailed in popular style, and still based 
_ On scientific accurasy. The receipts of the board for its last fiscal year 
were $6,891 60; its expenses $6,509 22, leaving a balance of $382 38.° 
The St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Association is an inde- 
pendent organization, projected by several hundred public-spirited citi- 
zens of that city, for the purpose of establishing a popular annual fair. 
It has a capital stock of $82,000, the interest of which is applied to 
improving its grounds. During the last thirteen years it has expended 
several hundred thousand dollars in various improvements and in an- 
nual premiums, and last year its premium list was increased to $30,000. 
It has built a spacious amphitheater, with an arena 250 feet wide, that 
will seat twelve thousand people coinfortably, giving to each person a 
view of the exhibition in the arena, with two promenades accommodating 
twenty-four thousand more, so that this immense structure will shelter 
thirty-six thousand persons; yet at the last fair it proved insufficient, 
as thousands could not be accommodated, and it is now determined to 
erect a new building, one-half size larger than the present one. A 
mechanical hall and one for machinery have also been erected, at an ex- 
pense of $40,000. Its last fair was asplendid success, there being nearly 
six thousand entries, and the spacious apartments of the association 
were overcrowded, and many fine specimens not seen for want of room. 
Mr. A. BE. Trabue, of Hannibal, Missouri, doubts the expediency of 
cookiug grain for hogs. Aftera series of experiments on the most econom- 
ical use of corn and ethgr cereals in fattening and wintering stock hogs, 
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