I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



547 



lifting the implement. In front of the lead- 

 ing cylinder, should be a double-moulboard 

 plough-head, to open a furrow 12 inches 

 wide, and lay the surface soil to each side, 

 and furnished with a lifting screw to regu- 

 late the depth it may be required to be 

 worked. Then in front of each of the other 

 cylinders should be cylinders 12 inches long 

 and 6 inches in diameter, on which should 

 be spirals, slightly curved forward, to take 

 up and deposit the surface soil into the fur- 

 rows formed by the double-mouldboard 

 plough-head. The heMces on the last-men- 

 tioned cylinders should be 9 inches deep, 

 and those portions of the implement should 

 be furnished with lifting screws to regulate 

 their working to any less depth that may be 

 required. These last-mentioned cylinders 

 must have their revolving motion in the con- 

 trary direction to that of the larger or sub- 

 soil cylinders, which may be effected by 

 means of cross bands, from pulleys on the 

 nave of the leading subsoil cylinder to 

 sheaves on the axles of the two small cylin- 

 ders behind.* 



When the under soil may be of clay, free 

 from stones, steam-power may be applied to 

 draining ; and with some modifications in 

 the means to obtain a proper action, no im- 

 plement appears better suited to the purpose 

 than that described, and of which a side el- 

 evation is given in % Morton's Cyclopedia of 

 Agriculture," vol. i. p. 707, invented by Mr. 

 Paul, of Thorpe Abbots, near Scole, Nor- 

 folk. 



Before dismissing the topics treated of in 

 the foregoing remarks, the writer has dis- 

 tinctly to disclaim any original invention on 

 his part, as there is not anything he has sug- 



* The principal working portion of the imple- 

 ment described in the text was the invention of 

 one Robert Hall, a shoemaker, at Prudhoe, on 

 the south bank of the Tyne, in Northumber- 

 land, in 1822; and although but little known, it 

 is nevertheless the best implement ever invent- 

 ed for the purpose. The writer has seen it 

 worked 12 inches deep in a tilly sub-soil, below 

 a furrow made by a common plough in the sur- 

 face soil 6 inches deep, by three horses, two 

 going in the furrow in length, and one on the 

 unploughed ground abreast the hindermost 

 horse in the furrow, with the most perfect effect. 

 In returning, the common plough opens another 

 furrow to be subsoiled, and covers with surface 

 soil a furrow which had previously been subsoil- 

 ed. So great is the effect of the operation, that 

 the volume of the broken or forked sub-soil is so 

 increased as nearly to fill the furrow, 6 or 7 in- 

 ches deep, in the surface soil. 



gested in the present paper that is new in 

 principle, and that has not been applied to 

 the same purposes by the power of horse 

 labour. With the exception of the last 

 mentioned implement, the sources from which 

 the different implements for the various pur- 

 poses have been derived have been acknow- 

 ledged in foot-notes to the text in which the 

 description of each occurs ; and the merit, 

 if any, in the present instance is confined to 

 designs for adapting previously well-known 

 principles as the means of the application of 

 steam-power to the cultivation of the soil. 



If steam-power were efficiently applied to 

 the tillage operations of agriculture, and the 

 power and means obtained at a moderate 

 cost in their purchase, great indeed would 

 be the advantages, not only to those imme- 

 diately concerned, but to the public at large. 

 Por not only would a cheapening of produc- 

 tion of the fruits of the soil be a valuable 

 result in a national point of view; but even 

 a still more important object w r ould be ob- 

 tained from despatch, by which it would be 

 in the power of the husbandman to choose 

 his time for his tillage operations, which un- 

 der the present system of field culture can 

 seldom be done, as the stock of working cat- 

 tle is never greater than can be fully and 

 constantly employed all the year round ; and 

 it frequently occurs that operations com- 

 menced under favourable circumstances, as 

 to the state of the soil, have to be continued 

 and finished under adverse conditions, from 

 not having an opportunity of waiting for a 

 proper condition of the soil, without clash- 

 ing with others of equal, or perhaps greater, 

 importance. 



It may be urged that the application of 

 steam-power to the cultivation of the soil 

 will ever be limited by particular circum- 

 stances, such as tillage farms of great ex- 

 tent, and flat ground. But if steam culture 

 were successfully introduced, might not it 

 become a profitable business to let the power 

 and means for hire to the tenants of farms 

 of moderate, and even small extent, as is 

 now very commonly the practice in many 

 districts with portable steam thrashing ma- 

 chines ? And might not flat grounds be 

 rendered so much the more productive, by 

 improved cultivation, that the steeper 

 grounds, whereon the difliculty of applying 

 steam cultivation may be insurmountable, be 

 applied to pastures ? And if even a small 

 portion of the horses now employed in agri- 

 culture could be dispensed with, by their 



