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FARMERS' REGISTER— STEAM PLOUGHS— RAIL ROADS, &c. 



them an abundant supply of food for twelve days, 

 besides allowing the pasturage to be well grown 

 for longer use. I water them regularly three 

 times a day from a well, having no other means; 

 and they are carefully littered in winter. Somuch 

 for cows of native American stock. 

 Pittsjield, (Mass.) Jan. 4, 1834. 



STEAM PLOUGHS. 



From the Gardeners' Magazine. 

 Two very ingenious mechanics, Messrs. Wykes 

 and Phillips, Market street, Edgware road, have 

 produced the model of a ploughing, or more pi'o- 

 perly, a digging or grubbing machine, to be im- 

 pelled by steam. The model is well worth exa- 

 mining. It is arranged on the principle of ren- 

 dering the action of grubbing the fulcrum for 

 moving forward the machine ; so that, a certain 

 power of steam being ap])lied, the machine would 

 move along a ridge, or a breadth of such a num- 

 ber of feet as might be determined on, (say six, 

 ten, twelve or fifteen feet,) at a greater or less 

 rate, according to the tenacity of the soil. Such a 

 machine would, no doubt, be applicable to many 

 of the purposes of field culture, and morees[)ecial- 

 ly to the working of fallows. But it would not 

 answer for })loughing up leys, or recent or tender 

 grass lands to be sown after once ploughing; nei- 

 ther would it plough in manure, nor form lands 

 into drills for turnips or potatoes; nor would it 

 harrow, hoe, or mow, or reap, all which might be 

 done by steam, as before ojiserved. 



To apply steam successfully to agriculture, it 

 has always appeared to us that the engineer ought 

 not to seek for a new implement, but simply for a 

 convenient locomotive power for impelling the im- 

 plements already in use, modified so as to suit the 

 new impelling power. The power for dragging 

 forward Lambert's mole-plough (^Encyc. of Agr. 

 § 2523) supplies the germ of this idea. There 

 Avould be no difficulty in inventing a locomotive 

 engine that would move itself any where, eitheron 

 rough or smooth, level or slojiing surfaces. There 

 would be no difficulty of stopping this machine at 

 any one point, throwing out or down long levers, 

 with claws at the extremities, to serve as grappling 

 irons to retain it firmly in its position. There 

 might then be a vertical gin-wheel, with a chain, 

 say of 100 yards. Supposing the locomotive ma- 

 chine taken to the first ridge of a field, the chain 

 wound up, and the end of it attached either to one 

 or many ploughs, harrows, or otiier iinplements. 

 Then let the machine be put in motion, and ad- 

 vance ninety yards, unwinding the chain, which 

 vnW now lie on tb.c ground in a line between the 

 steam machine am! the plough or harrow ma- 

 chine. Now reverse the turning of the gin-wlieel, 

 and the i)!ou>ih will be dragixed up to liie engine. 

 Change tlie wheel, lift up or draw in (all, of course, 

 by tlie machine itself) the grappling levers, and 

 proceed as bef()re. To some this may seem, at 

 first sight, a slow and awkward mode; but if a 

 ridge of twelve feet were ploughed, or the width 

 of three ridges harrowed, every time the machine 

 advanced, a twenty acre field would lie soon got 

 over. Nothing could be easier than to ada[)t ploughs 

 and all implements, even Bell's re;iping machine, 

 the thrashing machine, &c. to such a locomotive 

 power. Whenever an ample reward is offered, 

 the thing will be done. Or whoever thinks fit to 



employ such an engineer as Brunell, will have the 

 locomotive power invented and executed in a 

 month, as a matter of course. If this mode is not 

 adopted, stationary engines, at the ends of the 

 ridges, must be resorted to; or fixed points, found 

 or placed there, to which an engine and plough, 

 attached by a chain, might plough itself forward. 

 We recommend the subject to the Mechanics' 

 Magazine. It must never be forgotten, that in- 

 depently of the .saving of horses and their food, the 

 farmer would never be obliged to work his soil but 

 when it was in a proper condition for that purpose. 

 This, in our opinion, is one of the principal argu- 

 ments in favor of the application of steam to agri- 

 culture. 



FRKDERICKSBURG, PETERSBURG; NORFOLK, 

 THE ROAKOK E — AND THEIR RAIL ROADS. 



No. I. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I had scarcely read Hamilton's View of the 

 Local Legislation of the United and Individual 

 States, than I regretted to see so instructive and 

 destructive a commentary on it, in the debate on 

 the grant of money to the Roanoke road — a road 

 destined to give to Norfolk, and through Nor- 

 folk to Virginia, the rank that both ought to 

 hold in the southern section of the Union — a road, 

 which is destined to give to Virginia, that prepon- 

 derance of commerce, that must lead to a prepon- 

 derance in consequence, in these United States. 

 Early did Washington foresee it, and clearly did 

 he discern the efTccts that would ensue, if the eyes 

 of Virginia were not opened to her comparative 

 losses of conniierce and consequence, and if she 

 was not as active as it was probable her neighbors 

 would prove, and indeed, have proved themselves 

 to be. 



If we look to Chief Justice Marshall, we shall 

 find him speaking thus on the subject. " The plan 

 formed by France for connecting her extensive do- 

 minions in America, by unitmg Canada with Lou- 

 isiana, now began to develope itself; possession 

 was taken of a tract of country, then deemed to be 

 within the })rovince of V^irginia, and a line of posts 

 was conmienced from the lakes to the Ohio." Such 

 were the objects of the prescient Duke de Choi- 

 seul ; and, the no less prescient Washington, dis- 

 covered, that the same difficulties were likely to 

 occur, especially as Great Brithin had then secured 

 Canada — and, such are the actual results, as they 

 appear to every unbiassed mind, now that Spain 

 has ceded her portion of southern and western 

 North America. 



" To this subject, (the connection of the eastern 

 with the western territory,) the attention of Ge- 

 neral Washington had been in some measure di- 

 rected, in the earl)' part of his life. While the 

 American states were yet British colonies, he had 

 obtained the passage of a bill, empowering those 

 individuals who would engage in the work, to open 

 the Potomac, so as to render it navigable from tide 

 water to fVell's creek." Marshall, vol. 4, p. 10. 



In 1784, Washington went to Pittsburg. After 

 returning from thence, " his first moments of lei- 

 sure were devoted to the task of engaging his 

 countr3'men iti a work which appeared to him to 

 merit still more attention from its political, than 

 from its commercial influence on the Union.^' 



" He expressed unequivocally the opinion, that 



