to the Cultivation of the Land. 
191 
I concider the principle less advantageous than that of driving 
the digging shaft or cylinder in the same direction as that in 
which the travelling wheels revolve, because the power required, 
is greater, and the small diameter of digger which is necessary is 
open to these objections, — it incurs a very defective mode of 
communicating power through small motions ; and this loss of 
power, added to the clogging with earth and weeds on light 
sandy loam abounding with couch-grass, such as the trial-gi-ound 
at Chester, renders it unlikely that the digger could be worked 
with advantage in stiff soil. However, this was but a trial engine ; 
and Mr. Rickett having cultivated with it up and down a hill 
with a gradient of 1 in 7 without difficulty, and considering the 
experiments successful as a first essay, is now building a more 
complete and capable machine. In communications accom- 
panying drawings with which he has favoured me, he says : — 
" I can hardly consider my present arrangements improvements upon the 
one j'ou saw at Chester, as in that case the cuUivator was adapted to an 
engine as an experiment, the successful issue of which led me in the next 
place to adapt the engine to the cultivator, or to design a machine specially 
for locomotive steam cultivation. Such an engine 1 am now building ; it 
is io-horse power, and will cultivate at least 1 acre per hour 10 inches 
deep. The cultivator shaft is driven by couphng-rods direct from the engine 
crank-shaft, both the shafts making 60 revolutions per minute, and the 
engine having a 22-inch stroke. This is the minimum speed, a much greater 
velocity being practicable when not inverting. There is an arrangement of 
land wheels to maintain always a imiform def)th of digging, and only two 
men are required to work the machine. But the point to which I mainly 
directed my attention was that of providing an extended bearing surface on 
the land, believing that, although there are times when rolling wheels do not 
materially compress the land, generally speaking their eflect is injurious. I 
sought, in fact, to burj- the only real objection that can be raised to direct 
action. I patented last autumn a plan of ' elastic roadway,' by which I 
distribute the weight of the engine over 4 to 5 square feet, and therefore 
reduce the pressure on the land to about that of a man's foot. The price 
of this engine will be about 600L I propose using 18-inch tines in this cul- 
tivator, the diameter of the circle they describe being 3 feet ; and two cuts in 
each revolution, of 10 inches each. The width is 7 feet 6 inches. In Sep- 
tember last I worked up and down a stiabble field, gi-adient 1 in 7, when 
there had been rain on three previous days. Of course it was useless working, 
but we did not slip except in turning at the land's end, the tines in some places 
cutting through without bringing u^) the soil. Were it desirable to work 
land in such a state, I should use the angular spade form, which will cut 
wet clay ; but I do not think it is, and I arrange now for breaking up the 
land in a dry state, without caring to invert, — though, of course, that can 
he done if preferred. I consider the upward cut advantageotTS, because cutting 
in the direction of progressive motion secures (t'rom a combination of the two 
motions) a true and easy cut or cleavage ; while it enters the soil or com- 
mences work where the ground is soft, with a light cut, which increases as 
it approaches the surface, where the hard-baked sod cleaves easily, being 
without support. But if j-ou attempt, in a contrary direction, to break out 
a i^icce 10 inches wide, very considerable power is expended in compressing 
the soil before the action of the wedge is sufficient to sever the piece. In a 
