]36 TRANSACnONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



October 18,1864, 

 Mr. Nathan C. Ely, in the chair, 



Thayer's Steam Cultitator, 



Mr, A. P. Thayer, Syracuse, N. Y., exhibited a model of a steam cnlfi- 

 vator, and g'ave a description of his machine and what he hoped it would 

 accomplish. It is not a plow, but an earth catting" machine, and its ope- 

 ration is not unlike a straw cutting- machine, which has knires set around 

 a cylinder in a spiral form. These knives, four in number, are fire feet 

 long, twenty inches wide, one-fourth inch thick, of plate steel, and so 

 arranged that some part of them are continuous and equally cutting slices 

 of earth, three inches thick, and to any desired depth, being easily regu- 

 lated by gearing, which hoists the knives quite above the earth when 

 necessary. These slices are cut into five pieces, by cross knives, and 

 carried to the rear and deposited bottom upwards. Tlie cutting cyliiiderg 

 runs with a speed ten times greater than the driving Avheels, so that some- 

 thing is gained by momentum, and the operation is all the time drawing" 

 the machine forward, instead of holding it l?ack, like a dragging anchor, 

 as is the case with locomotives that drag a set of turning plows behind. 

 This cutting cylinder is in the rear, between the two main wheels that 

 support the platform which carries all the necessary machinery. The 

 boiler and chimney resting upon another pair of wheels project forward, 

 and are so arranged as to steer fhe whole as easily as an ordinary wagon 

 is steered by turning the forward wheels. There would b(^ no difficulty in 

 plowing a square lot about going within twenty feet of the corner. The 

 inventor calculates that a full-sized machine would weigh 3,000 pounds, 

 without fuel and water, and that it would require an engine of from eight 

 to ten horse power, 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter asked the inventor if he thought the earth would 

 be freed from the knives in the rapid motion he intended to give the cyl- 

 inder? 



Mr. Thayer, in reply, said he thought the earth would fall out of the 

 knives as they revolved. 



Mr. Solon Robinson asked what would be the effect of the machine, 

 should it hit a hidden boulder? 



Mr. Thayer. — The machine is not intended to work in stony ground. If 

 the knives should strike a firmly bedded stone, the effect would be the same 

 as when a plow struck it, the plow would stop. 



Dr. J. P. Trimble.— I am pleased to see that efforts are making to use 

 the power of steam in the cultivation of the soil. I hope to see in my day 

 that all our plowing will be done by steam power. 



The chairman expressed the opinion that the efforts of the inventor waa 

 very satisfactory. Of course nothing definite can be said about this plan 

 of working the earth until a full sized machine i» tried, yet as far as he 

 could judge, the plan looks fea-«ible. 



Fruits on the Table. 



A splendid exhibition of seedling grapes was made by Mr. David Thomp- 

 son, of Green Island, opposite Troy, New York, some of llie bunches of 



