-8 3- 



other, starting with no purpose for a full crop, labors less, and 

 with less satisfaction; allows his fence to fall, and cattle to tres- 

 pass; gathers not in due season, or not all. Thus the labor he has 

 performed, is wasted away, little by little, till in the end, he 



derives scarcely anything from it. 



The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farming, even with men 

 of energy. I scarcely ever knev/ a mammoth farm to sustain itself; 

 much less to return a profit upon the outlay. I have more than once 

 known a man to spend a respectable I'ortune upon one; fail and leave 

 it; and then some man of modest aims, get a small fraction of the 

 ground, and make a good living upon it. Mammoth farms are like 

 tools or weapons, which are too heavy to be handled. Ere long they 

 are thrown aside at a great loss. 



The successful application of steam power to farm work, is a 

 desideratum — especially a steam plow. It is not enough that a machine 

 operated by steam, will really plow. To be successful, it must, all 

 things considered, plow better than can be done with animal power. 

 It must do all the work as well, and cheaper ; or more rapidly , so as 

 to get through more perfectly in season ; or in .^ome way afford an 

 advantage over plowing with animals, else it is no success. I have 

 never seen a machine intended for a steam plow. Much praise and 

 admiration are bestowed upon some of them; and they may be, for aught 

 I know, already successful; but I have not perceived the demonstration 

 of it. I have thought a good deal, in an abstract v/ay about a steam 

 plow. That one which shall be so contrived as to apply the larger 

 proportion of its power to the cutting and turning the soil, and the 

 smallest, to the moving itself over the field, will be the best one. 

 A very small stationary engine would draw a large gang of plows through 

 the ground from a short distance to itself; but when it is not sta- 

 tionary, but has to move along like a horse, dragging the plows after 

 it, it must have additional power to carry itself; and the difficulty 

 grows by what is intended to overcome it; for what adds power also 

 adds size, and weight to the machine, thus increasing again, the 

 demand for power. Suppose you should construct the machine so as to 

 cut a succession of short furrows, say a rod in length, transversely 

 to the course the machine is locomoting, something like the shuttle 

 in weaving. In such case the whole machine would move north only the 

 width of a furrow, v/hile in length the furrow would be a rod from east 

 to west. In such case, a very large proportion of the power, would 

 be applied to the actual plowing. But in this, too, there would be 

 difficulty, which would be the getting of the plow i nto , and out of , 

 the ground, at the end of all these short furrows. 



I believe, however, ingenious men will, if they have not already, 

 overcome the difficulty I have suggested. But there is still another. 



