374 
Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
obtained is so great, tliat only trifling improvements in tliis 
direction remain possible to future inventors. It has been showi^. 
from Messrs. Morton and Harrison's experiments, that, out of a 
total draught of 28^^ cwts. due to the work (v\ith a 350 yards 
furrow), 1 cwt. is consumed in moving the rope and pullev, 
and ^ of a cwt. more in moving the anchorage forward ; leaving 
no less than 27^ cwts. (or 95 per cent, of the total draught at 
the clip-drum) engaged in hauling the implement. And, 
deducting the average draught of the plough when out of work — 
21^ cwts. — the result is that 24i cwts. (86 per cent, of the total 
draught) are actually applied to the severing and upturning of 
the soil. And considering further how largely the peculiar 
sources of friction and cohesion in horse-drawn implements are 
avoided in the steam plough and steam grubber (so that only 
minor improvements can be made either in the implement or the 
hauling apparatus), we see that little room can possibly remain 
for some novel machine which theorizers are expecting will one 
day accomplish two or three times as much tillage by the same 
expenditure of power. Saving of labour, too, can hardly be an 
important item in any future invention ; seeing that to work this 
apparatus of ]Mr. Fowler requires only an engine-driver and 
ploughman, one anchor-lad, and a couple of porter-boys; of 
course, with the addition of cartage of fuel and water. 
To accommodate customers who prefer a lower-priced machine, 
at the sacrifice of having to remove the engine, separate windlass, 
anchorage, »S:c., by horses, jNIr. Fowler places a clip-drum with 
the requisite toothed-wheels and a driving-rigger, in a self- 
travelling carriage-frame, which has cutting flanges attached to 
its wheels to prevent sidelong slipping in the direction of the 
ropes, these flanges being removed when shifting from field to 
field. A common portable 8 or 10-horse engine, temporarilv 
attached to this drum-carriage by a sort of iron shafts, follows it 
along the headland ; a V-grooved rigger on the crank-shaft driving 
a similar rigger on the drum-carriage by means of a peculiar 
endless-chain. This chain is composed of hard-wood blocks, 
wedge-shaped to fit the V groove, and connected together bv 
iron link-pieces. It conveys the whole force of a powerful 
engine, without slipping, no matter how loosely the chain may 
hang, and with large allowance for different angles of position of 
the two riggers ; and the wear is probably very trifling indeed. 
A third set of Mr. Fowler's machinery consists of two loco- 
motive engines, one on each headland, hauling the implement to" 
and fro, bv means of a single lengtli of rope, alternately wound 
and unwound by ordinary coiling drums, one beneath the boiler 
of each engine. A beautifully ingenious and very simple con- 
trivance (in which is employ ed a travelling pinion gearing with 
