1!H) THE SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



looser ground can be plowed, as the engines do not move across the field while at work. 

 AriothtT method of plowing with a stationary traction engine is to run the cable entirely 

 around the field, letting it turn the corners on strongly staked pulleys. A two- wheeled 

 set of gangs is used and fastened onto the cable at any desired point. The engine may 

 now stand still and draw the plow back and forth across the field by simply winding the 

 cable upon the reversible drum attached to the underside of the boiler. The illustration 

 of the Mexican plow herewith shows an engine coupled directly to the plows. 

 Where conditions are favorable this method is used very satisfactorily. The two-engine 

 system is used quite extensively in the Hawaiian Islands, there being thirty-three sets 

 in use there now, each one of which will turn over about ten acres a day with a four-fur- 

 row plow. 



Mr. E K. Lilienthal, who has made a careful test of plowing at various depths 

 and with teams and steam engines at the California farm alluded to, writes us in the 

 highest terms of steam plowing for beets. It enabled him to plow to depth of 16 inches, 

 and the beets on such land were 25 to 33 1-3 per cent heavier than on soil plowed by 



DIRECT CONNECTION OF STEAM ENGINE TO PLOW 



teams. The importance of deep plowing is obvious, and he has yet to find an implement 

 that equals the steam tackle illustrated on Page 93. Under this system, beets that 

 weighed four pounds each ran high in sugar and were acceptable at the factory. 



Mr. Lilienthal adds: "I have plowed over 500 acres this fall with this steam tackle, 

 and could go 18 or 20 inches deep as well as 16, if it were advisable. In former years I 

 endeavored to fall-plow with horses, getting uneven results, but have always been con- 

 vinced of the necessity of steam plowing, and after seven years' experience with it, I am 

 for it every time. The land is treated in the spring exactly as though it had been horse- 

 plowed in the fall, but the rows are placed 16 inches apart on this steam-plowed land, 

 instead of 20 as by the old method. We use 12 Ibs of seed only, as we are not obliged to 

 reseed, since the deep cultivation holds the moisture and insures sprouting of seed. Under 



