STEAM CULTIVATION. 



For many years it has been a dream of American inven- 

 tors to devise some means by which a locomotive steam- 

 engine could be made to take the place of the team in 

 ploughing. 



Thus far, although some of the devices have been made 

 to work tolerably well, none of them have achieved such suc- 

 cess as to commend them to general use. 



It has fallen to the lot of England to make the first appli- 

 cation of steam to ploughing that has been so decidedly 

 successful as to come into very general use. They have 

 abandoned the idea of making the steam-engine travel at 

 the front of the plough, and place it on one of the headlands, 

 broadside to its work, an " anchor " standing opposite to 

 it on the other side of the field. 



Under the engine there is a horizontal windlass, five feet 

 in diameter, and a similar windlass is attached to the anchor. 

 A steel wire rope passes around these two windlasses, its 

 ends being fastened to the carriage to which the ploughs are 

 suspended, and which forms a link in the endless chain. 



The windlass under the engine is so arranged that it 

 clasps the rope firmly on those parts where its pulling force 

 is exerted, and lets go as the rope leaves it in its movement 

 toward the anchor. 



