€10 
Report  on  Implements  at  York. 
weight,  so  that  though  the  plough  is  considerably  heavier  than  the  balance 
implement,  the  pressure  on  the  ground  is  not  greater,  and  it  has  the  great 
advantage  that  the  wheel  does  not  travel  in  the  furrow.  The  wheels  are  on  a 
cranked  axle,  d,  mounted  in  bearings  on  the  framing,  e is  the  front  steering- 
wheel,  mounted  on  the  turning-frame  f,  worked  by  a chain,/1,  from  the  hand- 
steering wheel  f.  a a are  the  rotating  shafts  carrying  the  ploughs  g,  and  at 
their  ends  the  bevel  pinions  a1  gearing  into  the  bevel  wheel  a2,  and  on  the  front 
end  of  the  said  shafts  discs  a3,  which  a pawl,  a4,  engages.  As  some  doubt  arose 
as  to  the  steering  properties  of  the  plough,  the  fulcrum  of  the  lever  h was  made 
to  shift  if  required  by  the  pin  sliding  in  a transverse  slot  h3  (Fig.  10),  but  prac- 
tical experience  has  shown  that  this  arrangement  was  quite  unnecessary,  as 
the  steerage  is  excellent.  The  depth  of  the  furrow  can  be  varied  from  four  to 
ten  inches  by  raising  or  lowering  the  frame ; this  is  done  by  altering  the 
position  of  a pin  in  reference  to  certain  holes  in  the  quadrant  on  the 
cranked  axle:  the  lower  end  of  the  quadrant  is  also  made  to  come  into 
contact  with  a stop  when  in  its  lowest  position.  The  level  position  of  the 
plough  is  secured  by  making  the  front  portion  of  the  frame  adjustable  in 
height  on  the  bearings  of  the  steering-wheel.  An  arrangement  for  marking 
out,  and  also  guiding  the  steersmen  is  provided ; and  recently  two  feet  have 
been  added,  which  enable  the  ploughs  to  take  ground  more  rapidly,  which  is 
a noticeable  improvement  over  the  balance  principle. 
The  frame  is  made  to  receive  cultivating  tines,  so  that  the  implement  may 
be  used  either  for  ploughing  or  cultivating.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  remove 
the  ploughs  and  fit  the  cultivating  tines  into  their  sockets  in  the  frame. 
A trial  was  arranged  on  Wednesday,  July  18th,  in  a small 
field  at  Bishopthorpe,  of  strongish  loam,  which  was  rather  hard 
and  dry.  The  distance  between  the  engines  actually  worked 
was  190  yards.  This  was  not  a favourable  trial,  inasmuch  as 
the  short  distance  necessitated  such  frequent  stoppage  and 
slacking  at  the  ends.  The  mean  time  of  a number  of  actual 
runs  was  1'  8",  which  equals  a mile  in  10£  minutes,  or  miles 
per  hour.  During  portions  of  each  run  the  implement  travelled 
at  from  seven  to  eight  miles  per  hour,  and  was  perfectly  steady 
in  work,  turning  over  four  ten-inch  furrows  six  to  seven  inches 
deep  with  great  regularity.  Indeed,  the  work  was  excellent  ; 
and  the  limit  of  speed  appeared  to  be  the  power  of  the  engines. 
The  average  time  occupied  in  turning  the  plough  at  the  land’s 
end  was  30  seconds.  A trial  was  made  by  working  the  plough 
for  half-an-hour,  with  the  following  results : — 
Length  of  furrow,  9 ‘45  ch. ; width  of  work,  -76  ch.  = 
0 a.  2 r.  34  • 9 p.,  which  gives  la.  1 r.  2 p.  per  hour. 
It  is  fair  to  assume,  as  the  turnings  occupied  nearly  one- 
third  of  the  time,  that  with  400  yards  of  rope — in  other  words, 
double  the  length  of  furrow — one-third  more  work  would  have 
been  done  in  the  time.  If,  however,  we  assume  an  average  of 
1^  acre  per  hour,  with  a four-furrow  plough,  we  have  certainly 
an  efficiency  as  to  quantity  double  that  of  the  balance-plough ; 
and  I do  not  believe  that  even  at  its  slow  rate  of  travel  the 
balance-plough  could  make  such  excellent  work  as  was  made  by 
Cattley’s  plough  travelling  at  fully  six  miles  an  hour.  Indeed, 
