Report on International Agricultural Meeting at Lille. 215 
with a steam-pressure of 80 lbs. to 90 lbs. The length of the 
furrow was about 60 metres, or 66 yards. The average time 
taken in passing over it was about three minutes, the work 
done was therefore at the rate of rather more than half an 
acre per hour. Owing to the driving wheels being moved 
independently of each other, the turning at the end of the 
furrows was accomplished very quickly, i.e., in about sixty 
seconds, on the average. In the beginning of the trial the 
depth of soil cultivated measured from 25 to 30 centimetres 
(9 - 825 to 11 '79 inches). The work was then set deeper, and 
a depth of fully 35 centimetres (13 - 755 inches) was obtained. 
The surface of the field, owing to heavy rains and a thick growth 
of old couchy grass, was in a condition far from favourable to 
the working of a "locomotive" cultivator. The engine, how- 
ever, travelled readily over the appointed ground, and the soil 
was lifted, the sward fairly covered, a fine tilth obtained, and the 
ground operated upon left in a very satisfactory condition. 
We have thought it desirable thus to 1 give the details of this 
"locomotive cultivator or digger," inasmuch as although the 
engine as well as the working parts of the cultivator were of 
rather rough workmanship, and admitted in more than one point 
of mechanical improvement, the machine did its work without 
stoppages in a very satisfactory manner. 
Hitherto the various attempts that have been made in this 
country to bring a working locomotive plough or cultivator into 
the field have been unsuccessful : Usher's at the Carlisle meet- 
ing, Rickett's at Chester, and Ptomaine's at Warwick and Leeds, 
having in each case failed to perform the work allotted to them, 
and being in consequence withdrawn from the competition. 
Without wishing to draw any comparison between the merits of 
the " locomotive " and the "steam-traction" systems of cultiva- 
tion, we cannot but express an opinion, that, in regard to the 
comparatively small first cost of the apparatus, the low rate of 
its working expenses, including wear and tear, and the quality 
of the work performed,* the locomotive system of tillage still 
has claims upon our consideration, notwithstanding the failures 
of former attempts. 
Archibald Keppel Macdonald. 
Iohn Wilson. 
* " Messrs. Brown and May, of Devizes, worked Romaine's rotary cultivator or 
digging-machine on Plot fi. The work done, though but little, was certainly 
the best in the field, the soil being finely pulverized to the depth of 7 inches." 
Report of Judges of Steam Cultivators at the Leeds Meeting, 1861, 'Royal Agri- 
cultural Society's Journal, 1 vol. xxii. p. 464. 
