630 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



land, and Ireland in 1832. Piolonged and costly ex- 

 periments have been required to mature the invention, 

 and adapt it to practical use as a substitute for animal 

 labor in many expensive agricultural processes, parti- 

 cularly in the culture of wet, heavy soils. Its first ap- 

 plication has been made to the reclamation of bogs, 

 which of all descriptions of soil otter perhaps the 

 greatest natural obstacles to improvement by mechani- 

 cal means. These obstacles are, however, etiectually 

 overcome. Various machinery, constructed expressly 

 for the cultivation of bogs, has, for some months, been 

 practically and successlully worked in Lancashire on 

 a bog called Red Moss, near Bolton-le-Moors. The 

 principal machine is locomotive, and is so contrived as 

 to be capable of travelling on the surface of bogs, the 

 consistence of which would be insufficient, previous to 

 a long and expensive drainage, for sustaining the 

 weight of horses. The moving power is steam, gen- 

 erated from the peat and water of the bog itself. The 

 diggings from the drains furnish abuntlaiice of fuel ; 

 and the drains yield an unfailing supply of water. 

 The prime agent, steam, is thus obtained at the cheap- 

 est possible rate ; the local fuel requiring no transport, 

 and the water no outlay in reservoirs or other construc- 

 tions, to ensure a constant provision. By far the great- 

 er part of the power of the engines fixed on the ma- 

 chine is available, and employed to actuate the ploughs 

 or other agricultural implements. These are moved at 

 right angles to the line of progress of the machine, not 

 dragged alter it; the machine itself remaining station- 

 ary whilst the ploughs are at work between it, and 

 two small auxiliary carriages, in the manner to he pre- 

 sently described. In commencing the reclamation of 

 a bog, a roadway is to be first traced out in a suitable 

 direction for the proposed operations. This is done 

 simply by forming two drains parallel with each other, 

 and about seven yards apart. The principal machine 

 is launched on this roadway. No metal or material of 

 any sort is necessary for its soHdity ; the machine rests 

 on the raw bog, and bears on so large a surface of it that 

 its buoyancy is insured. It also consolidates and dries 

 the roadway by its pressure. The two auxiliary car- 

 riages are stationed (where space permits) at a distance 

 of about 480 yards asunder : one on each side of the 

 principal machine, and parallel with it. Each carriage 

 is furnished with a large wheel, or pulley, round which 

 a band passes, proceeding from, and returning to, the 

 principal machine, whence it derives its motion by 

 proper apparatus. These bands are connected with 

 the ploughs, or other agricultural implements, which are 

 drawn to and fro between the machine and the auxili- 

 aries. One quarter of a mile of land in breadth, ex- 

 clusive of the roadway and headlands, is thus operated 

 upon on the two sides of the machine. The auxiliary 

 carriages travel on four wheels, resting on planks, 

 which from a moveable rail road. One of the planks 

 is let into a shallow trench cut in the bog, against one 

 side of wnich plank some friction rollers, fixed on the 

 carriage, press, in order to resist the pull of the engines. 

 Plougumg is the first agricultural operation. To ac- 

 complish this process in a thoroughly mechanical man- 

 ner, and to adapt it to steam power, it has been neces- 

 sary to contrive peculiar ploughs, furnished with sharp 

 working knives, which divide every root and fibre of 

 the bog plants, to the depth of nine inches, and turn 

 over a furrow slice of eighteen inches in breadtli, com- 

 pletely reversing the surtace, and turning the heather 

 side downwards. The underlying heath, moss, and 

 other bog-herbage, facilitates the discharge of water, 

 and permits the rain and air to penetrate the furrows. 

 Drains are formed as the ploughing proceeds, that the 

 vast qantilics of water liberated by that process may 

 be immediately carried olf. After lying a few months 

 in this state, exposed to the action of the atmosphere, 

 the ploughed surface is found to be so considerably 

 pulverized, that little remains to be done to fit it for the 

 reception of grass-seeds. The complex operations 

 necessary to prepare the soil for tlie culture of other 



and more important crops than grasses, will also be 

 materially simplified and economized by awaiting the 

 natural decomposition of the soil, which is so greatly 

 expedited by this system of ploughing as a first pro- 

 cess. It establishes a general under-drainage, which, 

 with the assistance of numerous shallow guttei-s dis- 

 charging into proper drains, will speedily create a soil 

 on the surface of the wettest bogs. The machine and 

 auxiliaries remain stationary during the time occupied 

 by the ploughs in taking two furrows; they are tlien, 

 severally, put in motion, and made to advance in three 

 parallel lines, in order to keep pace with the breadth 

 of land turned over, and to pull the ploughs accuratel)' 

 straight. The machine is impelled by the engines, 

 and each auxiliary by its attendant man, who also 

 shifts on his planks as occasion requires. The machine 

 and its auxiliaries have thus to be moved over a space 

 of eighteen inches only, whilst the ploughs have tra- 

 velled 440 yards, and turned over 220 square yards of 

 land nine inches in depth; in other words, the machine 

 and auxiliaries have to be moved only eleven yards, in 

 the time that the ploughs have travelled five and a 

 half miles, and turned over a statute acre of land. The 

 ploughs perform their work at the rate of two miles an 

 hour, and are subject to very few stoppages ; so that 

 eight acres and three quarters, nearly, of bog would 

 be ploughed up in a day's work of twelve hours, or, 

 taking the average of daylight throughout the year, 

 and making a liberal allowance for hinderances from 

 weather and other causes, one machine would plough 

 up 2000 acres in a twelvemonth. It is evidently im- 

 possible to state, with any apjiroach to accuracy, the 

 expense of draining bogs, as the number, nature, and 

 dimensions of the necessary drains vary with the wet- 

 ness, retentivcness, and other qualities of each parti- 

 cular bog. The cost of draining will be materially 

 reduced by applying steam-power to suitable draining 

 implements. In like proportion the expense of all 

 other processes in husbandry will be diminished. The 

 power of the engines will be used in conjunction with 

 portable railways, for the conveyance of marl, and 

 ■■other kinds of manure or manuring soils, on the land. 

 By these means, proper times and seasons can be se- 

 lected for performing the various farming operations, 

 the poacliing (or injuring froni the treading) of horses 

 will be entirely avoided ; open drains, where prefera- 

 ble, may be substituted for covered ones ; and no out- 

 lay will be required for roads. The land necessarily 

 lost by farm roads and communications between fields 

 will be consequently saved to the occupier and the 

 public, as the machine roadways will be laid down 

 with grass, and thus become permanently productive, 

 instead of being not only a positive loss, but a source 

 of continual expense and- trouble." 



We now come to give some account of Air. 

 John Upton's steam-plough, noiiced in our last 

 paper, and lor this purpose we will quote from a 

 prospectus in whicli that able engineer and me- 

 chanist has set Ibrlh some of the advantages 

 which he considers the agriculturists will derive 

 from his invention. Mr. Upton is at present 

 building a steam-plough, which he expects will 

 be finished in time to enable him to e.^hibit his ca- 

 pabilities before the prorogation of parliament. 

 Of late his liictory* has been visited by many county 

 members and practical agriculturists (amongst 

 others by Sir Rc-g. M 'Donald, S. Seton, Bart. 

 Hon. Secretary of the Highland Society,) who 

 have expressed themselves highly satishcd with 

 the appearance of the machine, is lightness, com- 

 pactness, strength, and manageableness. ' Mr. 

 Upton has executed with the greatest credit to 

 himself various important public works, and is a 



* No, 7. New Street, Southwark, London. 



