Book IV. 



STEAMING APPARATUS. 



441 



while the others were quite rough. Eccleston also found them useful instead of corn ; 

 and the extensive and accurate trials of Curwen have placed the utility and advantage ot 

 them in this way beyond all dispute. Curwen has found that in their preparation in this 

 way the waste of the potato is about one eighteenth part, and that straw when given along 

 with them answers as well as hay, as the horses keep their condition and do their work 

 equally well. 



2803. A steaming apparatus on a grand scale has been erected at Workington, by 

 Curwen, of which an accurate ground plan and section, with a copious description, 

 are given in The Complete Farmer. One erected by the Duke of Portland, chiefly for 

 steaming hay, w^ill be afterwards described. 



2804. An economical steaming and washing machine lias been described by Grey, in his 

 Implements of Husbandry, §c. The parts of this machine are few and simple : the 

 potatoes are washed, and emptied into a large chest to drip ; and when a sufficient quan- 

 tity is washed, this chest, by a motion of the crane, empties itself into a steaming-box, 

 placed almost immediately over the boiler ; by which means a large quantity of potatoes 

 or other materials are steamed at once. The chief advantage attending the use of this 

 simple steaming apparatus, he says, consists in saving manual labour in lifting on and off 

 the tubs for holding the potatoes, or other materials to be steamed ; also in lessening the 

 expense of erection, and repairs of leaden or copper pipes, turn-cocks, &c. Its superiority 

 over one with a number of steaming-tubs, especially in a large operation, will be at once 

 perceived by those who have paid attention to the subject. The steaming boiler may be 

 made of any approved form, and of a size proportioned to the steaming-box, with a 

 furnace of that construction which affords the greatest quantity of heat to the boiler 

 with the smallest waste of fuel. The steaming-box may be made either of cast-metal 

 plates, enclosed in a wooden frame, or of stout planks, well joined, and firmly fixed 

 together. It has been found by experience, that a box, eight feet in length, five feet 

 wide, and three feet deep, will serve for cooking, in the space of one hour, with the 

 attendance of one person, a sufficient quantity of potatoes to feed fifty ordinary horses, 

 allowing each horse thirty-two pounds weight per day. The boiler and steaming-box, 

 however, ought to be made of a size in proportion to the number of cattle to be fed, or 

 the quantity of materials to be steamed ; both boiler and steaming-box may be made 

 of any form and proportion that will best answer the intended purpose, with the least 

 expense. 



/Sfc== fl 2805. A steaming-machine, on a simple and 



^economical plan {jig. 407.), consists of a 



> boiler, and wooden chest or box placed over 

 or near it. The box may be of any size, and 

 so placed as to be supplied and emptied by 

 means of wheel or hand barrows in the 

 easiest manner, either by the end or top, or 

 both, being made to open. If the box is 

 made eight feet by five, and three deep, it will 

 hold, as many potatoes as will feed fifty cows 

 for twenty-tour hours, and these may be 

 steamed in an hour. (F. Mag. vol. xviii. p. 74.) 



2806. Boilers or boiling machines are only had recourse to in the case of very small 

 establishments. By means of fixed boilers, or boilers suspended by cranes, on the Lodi 

 dairy principles (270.), roots may be boiled, and chaff, weak corn, and other barn refuse, 

 rendered more palatable and nutritive to cattle. Hay tea also may be made, which is 

 a salutary and nutritive drink for horses or cattle when unwell, or for calving cows. 

 Food for swine and poultry may also be prepared in this way : or water boiled and 

 salted to half prepare chaff and culmiferous plants for animals. 



2807. A baking or roasting oven has been recommended for preparing the potato by 

 Picrrepoint (Comm. Board of Agr. vol. iv.), which he states to be attended with superior 

 advantages; but as, independently of other considerations, the use of such an oven must 

 be limited to potatoes, a steaming-machine, which will prepare any sort of food, is un- 

 doubtedly preferable for general purposes. Many speculative plans of this sort, however 

 ingenious, chiefly deserve notice as beacons to be avoided, or to prevent their being invented 

 and described a second time. 



2808. A machine for pounding limestone (.fig. 408.) is in use in some parts of the 

 country where unbumt chalk, limestone, or limestone gravel, is used as a manure. 1 his 

 machine may be worked by steam, wind, water, or the power of horses. It consists of a 

 beam (a) working on a wheel (b), and raising and lowering a cone of cast iron (c). I he 

 base of this cone, which may be a circle of from two to six feet in diameter, according to 

 the power of the machinery, and the size and hardness of the material to be broken, 

 should be studded with knobs or protuberances about two inches long, of a diamond 

 shape, terminating in a blunt point, and about five inches in circumference at the 



407 



6 



-$£_ 



