1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



237 



been supplied for the last four months, and sup- 

 plied several families, and sent 4000 pounds to 

 San Francisco market. The second crop will be 

 nearly as large. We do not pull up the vines, 

 but take out the full sized potatoes and cover the 

 roots. The potatoes keep growing, and in good 

 soil, produce crop after crop to one planting. 

 We can keep constantly digging for our own use 

 from the time the potatoes are first ripe, (four or 

 five months from planting) through the year. 

 One of my potatoes weighed eleven and one-half 

 pounds ! Would be glad could I send j-ou a bag 

 by telegraph" R. w. F. j 



For the New England Farmer. 

 STEAM PLOWS — [Continued.] 



by h. f. french, 

 boydell's patent traction engine. 

 This engine, as exhibited at Salisbury, was 

 operated to draw six plows, opening six furrows 

 at one passage across the field. It is distinguish- 

 ed from ths other steam plows that have been 

 mentioned by being worked by a locomotive in- 

 stead of a stationary engine, which walks over 

 the earth like some huge animal, puffing, and 

 snorting, and taking along its six plows, w^ith no 

 apparent consciousness of eff"ort. It possesses 

 another peculiarity — that of laying down an end- 

 less railway track for its wheels to run upon, and 

 taking it up as it proceeds. Attached to the 

 wheels of the engine are large, flat blocks, six to 

 each wheel, like rackets on a horse, to keep him 

 from sinking in soft ground, which are laid down 

 in turn by the wheel in its revolution, and on 

 which the iron rim of the wheel runs. This en- 

 gine walks about in a very intelligent sort of way, 

 comes on to the field from a common road, draw- 

 ing its tender with coal and water, and even car- 

 ries the extra clothing and dinner of the labor- 

 ers. It turns readily at the end of the furrow^ 

 stalks off to its water-tank when it is thirsty, 

 and helps itself to w'ater, and when it is hungry 

 or fatigued goes for its own coal for refreshment. 

 It is claimed that the same engine can draw your 

 timber to market or the mill, upon common roads, 

 haul in your hay and grain, work your threshing 

 machine, and in short do most of the work of the 

 farm instead of horses. This machine was not, at 

 Salisbury, doing so good plowing as Fowler's, but 

 the quality of the work is not, at present, of 

 much importance. It is not a question of mere 

 plowing, it is a question as to the best mode of 

 applying the power of the steam engine, whether 

 as a stationary or locomotive engine ; for it is 

 obvious enough that when we have once found a 

 convenient and economical power, jjlows, har- 

 rows, digging machines, or anything else may be 

 worked by it. Boydell's engine is guided by a 

 driver, who sits on the forward part, while the 

 engineer rides like a footman behind. Three 

 double plows were at Salisbury attached to it by 



chains, and these were held by three men, who 

 walked, following and holding the plows in the 

 usual manner. Many of the objections to the 

 stationary engine are obviated by this invention. 

 No horses are required to move it from place to 

 place, or to draw its supply of fuel and water. 

 The cumbrous "anchor," with the long ropes, 

 used by Fowler, are here dispensed with, and if 

 the adjustment of the plows as used by Fowler 

 is found most convenient, there is nothing to 

 prevent its adoption, and the drawing of his 

 plows, with this locomotive engine. The follow- 

 ing extract from The Railway Record of June 20, 

 1857, may be interesting, as showing the practi- 

 cal working of this engine, and the probability of 

 its application to agricultural uses : 



"We publish to-day the journal of the trial of 

 Mr. Boydell's Traction Engine, on its endless 

 raihvay, from Thetford in Norfolk to London, a 

 distance of about eighty-five miles, with a train 

 of carriages, containing about seventeen tons of 

 goods, which it brought up, upon the ordinary 

 road, at the rate of three and a half miles per 

 hour. The train was ninety-five feet in length, 

 and the engine twenty-seven, and the gradual as- 

 cent in many parts was one in fifteen, and at va- 

 rious points the road was newly laid with rough 

 flint and gravel. We are so satisfied that it is 

 only necessary for the actual performances of 

 this engine to be generally known to lead to its 

 adoption in localities where the cost of construct- 

 ing a level locomotive line would be too great, 

 that we especially desire that the "journal of the 

 trial between Thetford and London" should be 

 carefully read by all practical men. Hitherto 

 the traction engine has been better known in 

 connection with the agricultural interest, but 

 here we have its application to the traction of 

 merchandise on common roads." 



All the steam plows that have thus far been de- 

 scribed, are constructed upon the idea that the 

 old principle of the plow which shall turn a fur- 

 row of a few inches, subverting the soil, and pre- 

 paring it for more perfect tillage by means of 

 harrows and the like, should be employed. Yet 

 everybody admits that spade-cultivation is far 

 more perfect than that by the plow^, and the fact 

 that we never regard the soil as properly pre- 

 pared for the seed by the plow alone, indicate^: 

 pretty strongly that some more thorough opera't 

 tion than mere plowing is desirable in any im- 

 plement moved by steam. 



In the progress of all arts and sciences it is 

 observable how principles at one time deemed 

 most vital, come afterwards to be regarded as of 

 secondary importance, and still later again assert 

 their original claim to attention. Pulverization 

 of the soil was more than a century ago advoca- 

 ted by Jetliro Tull as the one essential to good 

 husbandry, and he even regarded manure as val- 

 uable only as assisting to pulverize the soil, by 

 fermentation. In later years chemistry has as- 



