236 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



A double plough, No. 33, and a horse hoe, No. 1, made by 

 Ruggles <fc Co., were exhibited by one of the committee. They 

 appeared to be first-class implements of the kind, highly credit- 

 able to the skill and ingenuity of those who made them. Of 

 this form of plough the committee have heretofore, more than 

 once, expressed a decidedly favorable opinion. 



The committee were instructed by the committee of arrange- 

 ments to examine a steam engine planned and constructed by 

 two lads of Lawrence. This engine is thus described by the 

 boys : — 



"During the second year of our apprenticeship, in the sum- 

 mer of 1853, having determined to build an engine, after some 

 deliberation we selected a design that seemed to possess what 

 we desired. We began at once on the drawings and working 

 plans. In the fall and winter of 1853 and 1854 we finished 

 the plans, and with some assistance completed the patterns 

 and got ready the castings by the first of April. We then com- 

 menced building the engine, and completed it ready t) run by 

 the first of July. We were interrupted somewhat durirg the 

 time, so much so that we worked only fifty-five days each from 

 the time it was commenced until it was completed. The de- 

 sign of the engine is similar to the machines built at the Law- 

 rence machine shop — of horizontal bed and cylinder. The cyl- 

 inder is of three-inch bore and nine in stroke, furnished with the 

 common slide valves, driven by eccentrics on the main shaft, 

 connecting with rocker arms placed on the side of the bed. 

 The cut-off valve shuts off the steam at one half stroke. The 

 fly wheel is three feet in diameter, three inches wide on the 

 face, and weighs, finished, one hundred and ten pounds. The 

 power of the machine, running one hundred and twenty strokes 

 per minute, is from two to three horses. Total weight of en- 

 gine is three hundred and sixty pounds. 



F. M. Tower. 



W. S. Kimball. 



To Mn. Piioctoh, Chairman of Committee, &c." 



The committee have groat pleasure in noticing this specimen 

 of artistic skill. They think it highly creditable to the young 



