Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
367 
in lever-bars, which rise and fall of their own accord, like the 
coulters of a drill, taking- 6 feet width at once. For these tines 
may be substituted three " double-tom " or ridge-ploughs, by 
which land is ridged for turnips, or laid up for winter exposure 
at a wonderfully rapid rate. This implement is turned at the 
land's end bv the action of the ropes, passed round the fore part 
in bows, which also hold ofiF the tail-rope in its proper place. 
The same practical exhibitor has also a land-presser for steam- 
power, so constructed that six wheels press as many furrows at 
once, each wheel ridin? independendy of the rest. 
Mr. C. Clay, of Wakefield, has a cultivator of peculiar action. 
The tines are fixed to cross-bars, which are at libertv to rotate 
part of a revolution ; so that when the implemeut begins its 
journey, one-half the tines enter of their own accord into the 
ground, while the other half fpointin? in an opposite direction) 
simultaneously rise out of work. Hence the workman has only 
the steering- to manage. The implement runs upon a single pair 
of wheels. 
The rotary rolling forker, which was a familiar object at the 
Society's meeting-s a few years ago, has reappeared in the 
modified form of a dijging-machine, invented bv Dr. G. Ager, 
of Avlsham, and exhibited by the manufacturers, Messrs. E. R. 
and F. Turner, of Ipswich. A set of rowels of large diameter, 
with curved tines or teeth, being- set in motion by the onward 
progress of the implement, penetrate and lift up the soil ; while a 
second and smaller set of rowels, driven bv toothed wheels and 
pitch-chains from the former set, clears the teeth of earth, much 
as the revolving spurs of a Xorwejian harrow clear each other. 
The machine is very similar to one which the Rev. S. Smith, of 
Lois Weedon, invented and worked with admirable effect a few 
years ag^o. The work produced bv the present dijger is reported 
by employers to be very effective and valuable, and to be per- 
formed with a comparatively small expenditure of motive power. 
The forked tilling part of the machine is placed in a circular 
frame, to which the hauling-ropes are attached, and is turned 
half round upon friction-rollers in this frame, for working in the 
opposite direction. 
Among the articles designed to aid steam-tillage, I must not 
omit a clever little contrivance of Mr. W. S. Underhill, of New- 
port, Salop. To prevent that serious delav — the breaking of a 
rope — and to preclude the risk of great damage firom sudden 
obstructions, inattention to signals, &c., the rope is attached to 
the implement by a spring- hook — that is, a hook so made as to 
release itself fi-om its hold when a spiral spring upon its shank 
becomes compressed beyond a certain point ; and this yielding 
strain may be set to any number of cwts. at pleasure. The 
VOL. XXJT. 2 B 
