II- 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 



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principally to crush barley, beans, and oats, admit of adjustment that 

 will " enable them to grind anything from linseed up to flint stones.' 

 Messrs. Homsby, Garrett, Crosskill, and other manufacturers, now 

 make steam-worked oil-cake breakers that will break 3000 Ibs. of cake 

 per hour for sheep, or 4000 Ibs. for cattle. 



Puljiiny Machina. Farmers are not agreed concerning the amount 

 of advantage derivable from the reduction of root- food to a softened state 

 In reference to potatoes, it has been found worth while to steam them 

 for pig food ; and even diseased potatoes, if not very far decayed, by 

 being thus treated, may be rendered good victuals to be stored up for 

 months. The pulping of txunips enables the root to be incorporated 

 with other nutritious articles of food. Pulping and Steaming machines 

 now occupy a place in all the exhibitions of Agricultural Implements. 



LAND DRAINING. 



Drain til f Miirhiaet. In strictness, the preparation of ground for 

 farming purposes ought to receive priority of notice, before the pro- 

 of agriculture. But in truth the two subjects are widely dis- 

 tinrt. Draining is a part of the civil engineer's labours, requiring the 

 application of numerous principles having little direct relation to 

 vegetable culture. It is an answer to the problem how to remove 

 from land a too great abundance of moisture ; in the same way that 

 irrigation is the process of imparting to land an additional quantity of 

 moisture. 



Drainiiif/-ji>/iiit/ltJ<. Somewhat more closely connected with the 

 fanner's operations, but nevertheless, requiring the aid of other 

 persons, is the use of the very singular draining-plough ; by which 

 one machine not only digs a drain, but also places a layer of draiuing- 

 pipes in it. 



It will be convenient, therefore, to refer to DRAIN-PIPES AND TILES, 

 f i >r an account of the ingenious machines by which clay is so fashioned 

 as to be available for these purposes ; to DRAINING, for a description of 

 the modes of applying these pipes ; and to IRRIGATION, for a notice of 

 the modes of supplying water to the soil for the purposes of agriculture. 



APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER. 



One of the most important questions now pressing on the attention 

 of agriculturists is to what extent may steam-power profitably super- 

 sede horse-power and manual labour ? Steam-engines may be applied 

 t " >rk the machines of the barn and threshing-floor, such as threshing 

 machines, winnowing and dressing machines, and the like ; or they may 

 1" applied to the operations of the land, such as ploughing, harrowing, 

 &c. All agree that these things can be done ; but the problem waiting 

 for solution is, whether they can be done profitably. Under the 

 headings DRILL, PLOUGH, &c., will be found details relating to this 

 matter; but it seems desirable to make a few general observations 

 on the subject in this place. 



All agricultural steam-engines must ultimately resolve themselves 



ne or other of five kinds fixed engines, to work machines 

 contiguous to them ; locomotive engines, to work a fixed machine ; 

 fixed engines, working locomotive machines by means of a travelling 

 -trap or rope; locomotive engines, carrying their own railway with 

 them over the surface of a field ; and locomotive engines, travelling 

 on lines of rail regularly laid down on the field. 



With regard to the first of these kinds ; it is evident that any 



nigm which is made to rotate may have its rotation given by a 

 steam-engine as well as by a horse moving in a circle, or by a man 

 turning a handle or wielding a flail. We may, therefore, at once refer 

 to the special articles for instances : simply stating, that steam power is 



ing more and more largely employed every year in performing the 

 o]>erationg of the barn and the mill. Fixed steam-engines have been in 

 use many years in Northumberland and East Lothian for threshing 

 and other barn operations. 



The Koyal Agricultural Society has been honourably distinguished 

 !>y the zeal with which it has encouraged improvements in this 

 direction. It propounded the question, whether moveable steam-engines 

 wniild not be better than fixed engines for barn as well as field pur- 

 poses. It assigned three reasons for answering this question in the 

 affirmative. 1st. That if a farm be very large, it will be greater 

 my to wheel a locomotive steam-engine to different parts, than 



Iny horses and men in bringing all the com in the straw to one 



mil again carrying out the dung to a distance (perhaps) of two 



nr three miles. 2nd. If a farm be of small or moderate size, it will 



pport the expense of a fixed steam-engine; whereas, a portable 

 I'lifrine may be avaikblc for two or three farms, at a fair ratio of expense 

 for each. 3rd. Although threshing can only be performed under cover 

 in bams by fixed engines, it is perfectly feasible in the open air by a 



live engine a plan healthier and more expeditious for the 



m, and rendering practicable a diminution in the number of farm 

 I'uildinip rpqiiiririi,' ti> !. constructed by the landlord. The Great 

 Kxliil 1 I irought forward the skill of many makers, such as 



y. Tnxfurd, Clayton, Barrett, Hensman, Bullin, Roe, Ransome, 

 ;uid 'iani'tt; but it also snowed that the invention was still in its 

 "rat specimen consumed three times more coal than 

 mount of work. Of thirteen locomotive agri- 

 cultural xtvani-digine* put to trial, the nominal horse-power varied 



' to '.' : t),'- time of getting up steam, 28 to 83 minutes; the coal 

 vu\ in getting up steam, 25 lb. to 75 Ibs. ; the coal burned per 

 ARTS AXD H'l. MV. VOL. T. 



horse-power per hour, 679 Ibs. to 25'80 Ibs. Mr. Locke, the eminent 

 engineer, in reporting on these trials, said : " If I might be permitted 

 to suggest a little advice to the makers of these engines, I would beg 

 of them to attend more to the proportions of the various working parts, 

 and less to external ornament. There is a want of good proportions' 

 in several of the engines ; and this to a mechanic or an economical 

 farmer is of more importance than a profusion of brass." Taking the 

 experience of 1851 as a basis, the engine-makers have every year 

 endeavoured to introduce improvements. At the Carlisle meeting of 

 the Agricultural Society, in 1855, a marked advance was observable in 

 the locomotives for farm purposes. The maximum consumption of 

 coal per horse-power per hour was 10 Ibs., while the minimum was as 

 low as 3'7 Ibs. It was found, however, that some of the engines had 

 been built expressly to win the Society's prizes and commendations, 

 and that more attention was needed to the rough and every-day 

 qualities reqviired for practical farming. By the year 1857 it had 

 become a practice not at all unusual to make one steam-engine, under 

 the charge of an intelligent farm labourer, perform all the operations of 

 setting in motion threshing and winnowing machines, cutting chaff or 

 roots, crushing oats, grinding corn, pulping mangold-wurzel, splitting 

 beans, sawing wood, pumping water, and applying steam for steaming 

 potatoes or roots. At the Salisbury meeting in that year, it was 

 announced that Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth were making and 

 selling agricultural steam-engines at the rate of five hundred per 

 annum ; and by the close of 1858 they had made several thousands, 

 mostly for export to foreign countries, where English agricultural 

 machines are now eagerly sought for. 



We have, lastly, to notice the most comprehensive system ever yet 

 proposed, for applying steam-power to agriculture ; a system only yet 

 tried on a small scale, awaiting the time when it can be put to better 

 tests. . It is called the ' Guideway Steam Agriculture ; ' and it was 

 fully described by its inventor, Mr. Halkett, at a meeting of the Society 

 of Arts, on the 8th of December, 1858. The subject had been intro- 

 duced to the society, and also to the Royal Agricultural Society, in 

 1857 ; but certain additions aud improvements were made during 1858. 

 The inventor regards his system as advantageous, not so much in the 

 reduced cost of field operations, as in the increase of crops resulting 

 therefrom. The principle consists in the laying down of permanent rails 

 on the field, and the travelling of all the machines along those rails. The 

 rails are Laid in parallel lines on a very broad gauge. The ploughing, 

 scarifying, sowing, hoeing, and reaping instruments are attached beneath 

 a travelling carriage having locomotion given to it by steam power. 

 The gauge has been tried at thirty feet ; but the inventor sees no 

 obstacle to the use of one as great as fifty feet. At right angles to the 

 rails, along one side of the field, are other rails on a lower level, with 

 very low carriages or trucks, the upper surface of which is on a level 

 with the field rails ; upon this truck the cultivating machinery moves, 

 and is transferred sideways from one set of rails to another, or home to 

 the steading. It is a sort of apparatus like that which is much in use 

 on the Great Western Railway for transferring carriages from one 

 pair of rails to another. This cross-railway Mr. Halkett calls the 

 headland railway, on which the headland truck works. Three modes 

 of laying down the rails are suggested. The first, for clay districts, 

 consists in laying angularly-topped iron rails on a support of hard- 

 baked bricks, which are themselves supported by a ballasting of burnt 

 clay or concrete ; this form requires that the tires of the wheels should 

 have angular grooves to fit upon the rails. The second, for wood 

 districts, is a cheap mode of laying down flat-surfaced creasoted 

 wooden rails, on wood sleepers. The third, for market gardens and 

 other high-rented land, consists in resting the rails on small posts or 

 piles, in order to economise space. One reason for the great breadth of 

 ;auge is that as little land as possible may be occupied by the rails and 

 their supports. As none of the machines could travel along the rails 

 at a greater speed than two or three miles an hour, minute accuracy of 

 gauge and of motion would not be so necessary as upon an ordinary 

 railway. 



Such being, in few words, the arrangement of the rails and carriages, 

 the steam culture is as follows : The steam cultivator, a system of 

 Roughs, is driven by two locomotive engines, placed at the extreme 

 ends or sides, which are geared together by intermediate shafts. The 

 cultivator has two sets of ploughs, working in opposite directions, and 

 each in use during one particular direction of movement only ; the 

 other set being meanwhile raised by racks and pinions. The inventor 

 states that 25 acres can thus be ploughed in a day of twelve hours. 

 The land having been ploughed up, a ' comminutor ' takes the place of 

 ;he ' cultivator,' being, like it, moved by locomotives ; it is something 

 ike the Norwegian harrow, but revolves at a high velocity, and its 

 ,ines or spikes break up the soil to a fine condition. The clod-crushing, 

 the hoeing, the harrowing, the manure depositing, the water distributing, 

 the reaping, and other field operations, are done by attaching the 

 requisite machines or implements to the travelling carriage. 



The advantages to be expected by the adoption of this system are 

 nsisted on by Mr. Halkett in a variety of ways. The great advances 

 vhich have been made by Fowler, Boydell, and other implement- 

 iiakers, in ploughing and breaking up land by steam, have schooled 

 the mind to the possibility of the same power being eligible for use in 

 the field, and have prepared agriculturists to expect a system that shall 

 >erform more than one operation. The system is applicable both to 



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