540 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[September 



horses, then with one horse, :ind then with 

 four men. 



The opinions of the people acquainted with 

 the suljeet, we found to be quite varied. The 

 fact is, that all the machines were good, and 

 performed their work well. 



After the whole field had been cut down, 

 the Judges got together and made up their de- 

 cisis as follows : 



" All the machines on the ground are first- 

 rate workers. 



" We give the preference for draft and work 

 to Kirhy's American Harvester. 



"We give our second preference for draft 

 and work to the Buckeye." 



The committee did not go farther in their 

 expressions of preference, but concluded this 

 to he sufficient. #- 



The spectators were favorably impressed 

 with the "Champion," and with Pennock's 

 Iron Harvester, and some liked the New Jersey. 

 The American Harvester, Buckeye and Cham- 

 pion, cut the grass very well, and spread it 

 much better than either of the other three. 



One thing was quite apparent, those ma- 

 chines driven by persons who make a business 

 of it at every exhibition, had the best chance- 



Take the whole affair together, it was a very 

 pleasant meeting. The farmers enjoyed it 

 greatly, and although a little out of our line 

 of business, we confess we were highly grati- 

 fied. — New Jersey Farmer. 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 



Description of a Traction Engine, and of 

 the Implements to be Worked There- 

 with, in the Application of Steam 

 Power to Tillage and other Operations 

 of Agriculture. 



BY JOHN EWART, LAND SURVEYOR, AND 

 AGRICULTURAL ENGINEER, NEWCASTLE- 

 UPON-TYNE. 



It is not less feasible, and certainly not 

 less important, that steam-power should be 

 applied to cultivation, than to the staple 

 manufactures of the country, to steam navi- 

 gation, and to railway communication. For 

 some years past the attention of many me- 

 chanical engineers of eminence, and of prac- 

 tical agriculturists, has been directed to the 

 application of steam-power to cultivation j 

 but hitherto without that success which 

 might have been expected in so important 

 an object. 



This failure of success has arisen not only 

 from a defective application of the power 

 itself, but also frdfta a persistence in the use 

 of implements, as a medium of the applica- 

 tion of the power, which, from their action, 



are ill adapted to the purpose. On this 

 subject, Mr. Hoskyns in his able article on 

 " steam culture " in " Morton's Cyclopedia 

 of Agriculture," published in 1855, remarks 

 that " it is true that no demonstration has 

 ever been attempted of any special inapti- 

 tude of steam power for the work of culti- 

 vation. The impediments it has had to en- 

 counter have been those of delay, rather 

 than denial, or even mistrust, of its ultimate 

 possibility; and the delay itself has been 

 due rather, it would seem, to error than neg- 

 lect — the error so long persisted in, of re- 

 garding the plough as the sine qua non of 

 field cultivation, and the necessary medium 

 through which the steam-engine was to be 

 applied to cultivation." 



It will not, it is hoped, incur a charge of 

 presumption in any individual, who, having 

 given the subject of application of steam- 

 power to cultivation long and attentive con- 

 sideration, in offering, a few suggestions by 

 which so desirable an object as that in ques- 

 tion may be promoted ) nor will apology for 

 craving space in the pages of your valuable 

 miscellany with that view be required. 



With the above-quoted remarks of Mr. 

 Hoskyns, the writer of the present paper 

 entirely concurs ; and he might, if any doubt 

 can exist of the truth of the action of the 

 plough being inefficient in its purpose, espe- 

 cially in its not being " the necessary me- 

 dium through which the steam-engine was 

 to be applied to cultivation," quote the ob- 

 servations on the subject of steam culture, 

 in a lecture to the Manchester Royal Insti- 

 tution, March, 1849, and contained in the 

 article already adverted to; but the admira- 

 ble text-book on all topics in any way relat- 

 ing to agriculture referred to, being, he sup- 

 poses, in the possession of most persons in- 

 terested in field culture, it will be unnecessa- 

 ry to trespass here by any further quotation 

 from the article in question. 



The principal cause of failure in the use 

 hitherto of steam power to the purpose in 

 question has been in the persistence in the 

 use of implements, in which the action is 

 simple traction through the soil. Although 

 it is intended to reserve lengthened remarks 

 on the implements to be used with the steam- 

 engine in the tillage operations of agricul- 

 ture until after having first treated of the 

 motor for the purpose, yet it may be here 

 remarked that the power of steam can never 

 be applied to cultivation with complete suc- 

 cess unless a considerable breadth of ground 



