78 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



motion of the machine, a sort of spiral curve, as the knives travel over the ridges. By this 

 means they sweep away all the plants in the intended interval, leaving nothing to do but to 

 single the plants out by hand, which is done with great ease and rapidity by a boy. Five or 

 six acres may be thus thinned out in a day. 



Steam for Agricultural Purposes, 



b 



AT the late Fair of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, a premium "of 200 (one 

 thousand dollars) was offered "/or the steam- cultivator that shall in the most efficient manner 

 turn the soil, and be an economical substitute for the plow or the spade." 



In view of the great attention which this subject is exciting, the English Agricultural 

 Gazette published the following article, addressed to the "Committee of Award," in which 

 are set forth the alleged advantages of the steam-cultivator or digger over the plow or 

 spade. We recommend the article to the attention of American inventors, as clearly setting 

 forth the requisite ends which must be obtained to render any such invention practical and 

 successful. Editor. 



"Turn the soil." Mark this expression; for the whole character and efficiency of the 

 machine depends on this point. Break up, loosen and commingle the soil as much as you 

 please, in preparing a seed-bed for any crop, but if weeds and grasses be left still green on 

 the surface, if the seeds of our annual infesting enemies remain in favorable exposure to the 

 vivifying sunshine and feeding dews, your tillage will be utterly abortive. On the other 

 hand, if the ground be a stubble, bury every weed and withering stalk, and you promote its 

 decomposition in the soil, making manure of what would otherwise injure as well as encum- 

 ber ; if it be a sward or a lea, still more urgently must you inter every blade and plant 

 that might spring up among your intended crop. In the fundamental operation of tillage, 

 the destruction of all remnants of old crops, and the loosening up of the staple for a succeed- 

 ing one, you must "turn the soil." Was it not for this very purpose of burying obnoxious 

 vegetation, and opening up a fresh surface of earth, that plows with mould-boards super- 

 seded the imperfect scratching instruments of yore ? Is not the chief fault of the plow itself 

 that it does not completely hide all surface vegetation, but too often (especially when the 

 plowman is blamable) leaves grass or other living growth to shoot up among the seams of 

 its furrows, and defy the weeder of the coming crop ? For many tillage purposes, such as 

 autumn cleansing or spring grubbing, no such inversion is needed; but in the first and 

 foundation-work of breaking up after a crop, and to the full depth of the intended staple, 

 you must "turn the soil." Perhaps an instrument able to stir and mix every portion of a 

 deep staple might be made to bring up repeated instalments of earth long buried, and thrust 

 down the long-exposed surface to take its place, at the same time forking out root-weeds and 

 rubbish. As far as fertilization is concerned, perhaps a frequent commixing of soil and sub- 

 soil might suffice, instead of alternate exposure of each upon the surface ; but the considera- 

 tion of weeds alone inculcates the necessity of "turning the soil." Therefore we maintain 

 that the first condition of the society's offer is well chosen, and that the premium will be 

 misappropriated, in the opinion of practical men, if given to a machine (no matter how expert 

 at comminution) that cannot entirely bury the surface. 



Then it must be also "an economical substitute for the plow or the spade." If there shall 

 be an engine that turns over furrows effectively at less cost than the plow, (first expense 

 included,) although it may be incapable of any other labor, give it the prize. And should 

 there be a machine unable to plow at all, but able to dig in as perfect a manner as men can 

 with spades, if it will perform this work alone more cheaply than men, it is entitled to the 

 prize. Plowing ought to be accomplished for less money than by horses, and digging (though 

 this of course is a more expensive operation) at less cost than by men. 



The judges have not to determine whether or not digging a la spade will be too expensive 

 for the farmer, although indispensable to the market gardener ; whether or not a cheaply- 

 digging engine would not inaugurate miracles upon the clays ; but, (useful or not,) according to 

 the terms of the offer, they must award the premium either to an engine that digs more econo- 

 mically than the spade, or that plows more economically than our present horse-plow. 



