188 
Application of Steam Power 
partly bearing up the end which is not supported by the small 
travelling-wheel, by means of the " hydraulic ;" and this wheel 
also is to be placed exactly opposite the end of the digging 
cylinder, so as to adjust the depth of culture more accurately. 
In deeper tillage, the action of the machine is far more effective 
and economical, and it is able to dig 12 and even 16 inches deep. 
A lengtli of 23 chains I saw cultivated in 23 minutes, including 
1 2 minute stopping, turning, and setting-in again; and as the 
breadth of work is 7 feet and a half, the extent dug in a day of 
10 hours is nearly 7 acres. The engine working at 70 lbs. 
pressure may be called 20 horse-power, though it may be worked 
up to 80 or 90 lbs. if required, and hence the expenses may be 
estimated (with the same conditions as before, only that the price 
is 700/,) to be 65. to 65. 6c?. per acre ; and this is extraordinary 
economy when we consider the effective character of the tillage, 
and that work 10 or 12 inches deep would cost but little more, — 
that is, merely extra fuel for the greater power engaged. 
Practical trial, then, has fully borne out the promise of theory : 
a rotary steam-cultivator can produce the most economical results, 
and possesses the greatest advantages, were it not that a further 
simplification of mechanism, and a relieving of the soil from 
excessive pressure, are still to be sought. 
In August, 1857, Mr. Thomas Rickett, of the Castle Foundry, 
Buckingham, patented a steam-cultivator, in which a revolving 
tiller is attached to the tail of a locomotive engine ; but, instead 
of taking advantage of its propelling action, this tiller is made to 
rotate in the opposite direction to the revolution of the carriage- 
wheels, thus tending to retard the progress of the machine and 
involving greater expenditure of power. Tlie motion of the 
cutters is forward and u])ward, as in Mr. Paul's drain-cutter and 
subsoiler ; and the earth is raised up in front of the axle, carried 
completely over it, and deposited behind by its own gravity. 
The advantage is, that the cutters are better able to cope with 
stony or very hard soils, and, entering the unmoved ground at the 
full depth, they avoid the difficulty of penetrating from the top 
when dry and baked with the sun. But this gain is found only 
in shallow working ; as tlie hardest ground is certainly the pan 
or indurated stratum of subsoil underlying the staple at present 
cultivated, and which it is one of tlie main objects of a steam- 
tiller to break up. And a misapprehension as to the difficulty of 
penetration from the top arises from our experience of traction- 
grubl)ers, tV'c, which, witli horse-power, have the line of draft 
considerably upward, tending to raise them out of the soil ; or 
with steam-hauled rope dragging horizontally, the implement 
holds itself in the ground by the down-pointing of its shares, 
thus sticking well to its work with a rooting nose under a con- 
