622 



Report to H.R.H. the President 



rick into your barn on a wet day ; and so rapid is the work of the 

 new threshing-machines, that it takes no more time to thresh the 

 corn than to move it. Open-air threshing is also far pleasanter 

 and healthier for the labourers, their lungs not being choked with 

 dust, as under cover they are ; and there is, of course, a saving of 

 labour to the tenant not inconsiderable ; but when these move- 

 able steam-engines have spread generally, there will arise an 

 equally important saving to the landlord in buildings. Instead 

 of three or more barns clustering round the homestead, one or 

 other in constant want of repair, a single building will suffice for 

 dressing corn and for chaff-cutting. The very barn-floors saved 

 will be no insignificant item. Now that buildings are required 

 for new purposes, we must, if we can, retrench those buildings 

 whose objects are obsolete. Open-air threshing may appear 

 visionary : but it is quite common with the new machinery ; nor 

 would any one perform the tedious manoeuvre of setting horses 

 and men to pull down a rick, place it on carts, and build it up 

 again in the barn, who had once tried the simple plan of pitching 

 the sheaves at once into the threshing-machine. These moveable 

 steam-engines have been gradually improved by the yearly trials 

 of the Agricultural Society. It will be seen by Mr. Carr's 

 Report* that such yearly trials are still needed, as the worst of 



* The mode of ascertaining the amount of duty done, and weight of coal consumed, 

 in a given time by each engine, was the same as that adopted by the Hoyal Agricul- 

 tural Society of England at their Annual Show of Implements and Machinery ; and 

 the dynamometer used for the trial was the same as the one supplied to that Society 

 by Messrs. Easton and Amos, their consulting engineers. 



Messrs. Tuxford and Sons presented the novelty of placing their cylinder and work- 

 ing parts in a wrought-iron box at the end of the boiler, having a pair of doors to lock 

 the whole up when not in work, which I certainly think a good idea, and of some 

 practical importance. But to gain this, the tubes at the smoke-box end were rendered 

 difficult to be got at. Tliere were two engines brought to the trial-yard upon this 

 construction, one a six-horse direct action upright cylinder, the other a 4-horse oscillat- 

 ing ; but the former worked out the most duty with the least fuel. 



Messrs. Hornsby a^id Son were distinguished by placing their cylinder inside the 

 upper part of the fire-box, the whole of which, together with the rest of their boiler, was 

 carefully felted and lagged with wood; and they had a well-constructed water-heating 

 apparatus in their smoke-box, which also helped to produce the satisfactory result of 

 great economy in fuel. 



Messrs. Garrett and Son in their engine had made a great effort to combine lightness 

 with strength, having substituted wrought for cast iron in the bearing for crank-shaft 

 and other parts. Their boiler presented a great amount of heating surface, but the 

 fire-box, to insure greater strength and a less amount of flat surface exposed to steam 

 pressure, was made partially oval, and considerably smaller than most of its competi- 

 tors. The fire-bars being above the level of many of the tubes of the boiler, and the 

 flame having to descend over a bridge, the manufacturers expressed themselves quite 

 aware that this construction of fire-box would prevent their standing quite so well as 

 some with respect to fuel consumed, but considered that superior strength, lightness, 

 and portability would more than compensate, this class of engine seldom working 

 more than a few months in the year, and having to be conveyed from farm to farm. 

 And 1 certainly considered this engine the most portable, for its power, of any exhibited. 

 During the trial some derangement took place in the slide, so that the result was not 

 so favourable ; but upon the engine being put through a second trial with Messrs. 



