56 
The Evolution of Agricultural Implements. 
whose significance is emphasised by the fact that handles are 
altogether discarded in the best modern examples of double- 
furrow ploughs. 
It is surprising that the “ gang,” or pole-ploughs, common 
in America, have made so little headway in this country. 
These ploughs are guided by a pole and carried on two large 
wheels, one of which treads in the furrow and the other on 
the land, thus supporting both the weight of the imphunent 
and the down thrust of the share upon rolling surfaces. 
“ Gang ploughs ” are commonly double or multiple furrow imple- 
ments, making use of a cranked axle, similar to that already 
described, for regulating the depth of the furrow and for raising 
the plough at land’s end. The ploughman drives his team 
from a suitable seat, as in a mowing- or reaping-machine, his 
weight adding scarcely at all to the draught of the plough. 
There are numberless varieties of this plough in use in the 
United States, but only two English makers have ventured as 
yet to follow the American lead, and that with little success. 
Howard, of Bedford, and Cooke, of Lincoln, both showed pole- 
ploughs at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show at Derby in 
1881, but these implements have made no appreciable advance 
in this country since that time, prejudice being, apparently, the 
only real obstacle to their successful employment. 
It is now rather more than a quarter of a century since the 
late Mr. John Fowler, speaking before the Society of Arts, 
anticipated that the general adoption of steam cultivation would 
save this country twenty-five millions sterling per annum — or 
half its yearly bill — for horse power employed on the land. Mr. 
Fowler’s anticipation was too sanguine ; but steam-ploughing, 
which, at that time, was little more than an idea “ conceived,” 
to use his own words, “ in the minds of those who are rather 
poets than mechanics,” has at least proved a complete mechanical 
and commercial success. 
Space forbids any attempt to discuss steam tillage within the 
four corners of an essay proposing to deal with farm machinery 
generally, nor is it needful to say more than a few words on this 
question in view of the fact that the Transactions of the Royal 
Agricultural Society, the Farmers’ Club, the Society of Arts, and the 
Institution of Mechanical Engineers have already been enriched 
with exhaustive communications on this interesting subject from 
Mr. J. A. Clarke, Mr. Fowler, Mr. Greig, Mr. Howard, Mr. J. C. 
Morton, and other writers of eminence. 
Briefly, however, the experience of the last forty years 
may be said to have demonstrated that steam tillage is best 
apcomplished by means of two self-moving winding-engines, 
