246 Report on Trials of Plows. 



Fig. 121. It runs upon a light wooden railroad, or rather 

 trajn, road; as soon as it has passed over one pair of rails they 

 are taken up by an attendant and replaced in front of the machine. 

 What is called the shovel is more like a chisel which enters the 

 ground diagonally. It is moved forward by means of a chain 

 which is anchored to a stake at some distance ahead, and the 

 other end is slowly wound round a pulley which revolves on the 

 machine. The shovel runs down to the bottom of the ditch at 

 each plunge, and raises the earth to the surface, where it is 

 caught by the scrapers, by which it is removed about two feet 

 from the sides of the ditch. The power required to operate the 

 machine is two horses, a driver, and a man to remove the rails, 

 or an expert man may do both. It will cut a tile drain at the rate 

 of from four to six rods an hour in ordinary ground. It cut a 

 ditch in our presence, in a very adhesive clay soil, two feet deep, 

 taking out six lineal inches at every revolution of the sweep; 

 while doing this it was worked with only one horse and one 

 man. It appears complicated on looking at the figure; but it is 

 in reality very simple. There is not a single geared wheel used 

 in its construction; it can all be made by any blacksmith or car- 

 penter, and if anything breaks it can be repaired in any village 

 in the country. There are only 100 pounds of castings used 

 about the whole machine, and any one that is competent to run a 

 mowing machine or a threshing machine will have no difficulty 

 in operating this one. 



We were unanimously of the opinion that this machine is very 

 far in advance of any contrivance for the excavation of ditches 

 that we have ever seen, and that it is a practical, economical and 

 useful implement which is greatly demanded at the present time. 

 We do not doubt that its proprietors will be enabled to simplify 

 and improve its details, and to strengthen some of its parts; but 

 in our judgment the principle is a good one, and will meet the 

 approbation of the increasing number who desire to increase the 

 products of their farms by luiderdraining. We therefore award 

 to it a gold medal. 



Class IX — A Steel Plow for Alluvial and Unctuous Lands. 



The only plow entered in this class was that of Collins & Co., 

 of New York. 



Plow C, No. 3. Entry No. 4. Weight, yO pounds. Price, $25. 

 There was no land in the vicinity of Utica which was adapted 



