The Evolution of Agricultural Implements. 
255 
by the mechanician. It has been attacked in three different 
ways, viz., by — 
1. Drain-ploughs for making open grips. 
2. Mole-ploughs. 
3. Rotary excavators, supplemented by apparatus for laying 
and covering the drain-pipes. 
Drahv-ploughs, first introduced by McEwan, a tenant-farmer 
of Stirlingshire, Avere much in vogue about the beginning of 
this century, and are frequently noticed by agricultural writers 
of that period. McEwan’s plough cut a furrow slice some 18 
inches wide and 14 inches deep by means of two coulters, while 
a shovel-shaped share lifted the slice to the surface. A second 
similar implement followed the first, and deepened the grip to 
18 or 22 inches, some twelve horses being required to haul the 
plough through strong clay land free from stones. Alexander 
of Taylorton, Stirlingshire, improved on McEwan’s drain-plough 
in 1840, the first plough taking out a spit of 17, and the second 
a spit of 10 inches deep. 
Early experimenters in steam-ploughing, notably Mr. Heath- 
cote, of Tiverton, proposed hauling such ploughs as those of 
McEwan and Alexander by steam-power, and Heathcote, indeed, 
not only patented plans for this purpose in 1832, but reduced 
them to practice more than fifty years ago. 
At the Royal Show of 1871, Fowler showed a steam ditching- 
machine, and at the Inventions Exhibition of 1885 another 
very large and powerful implement of similar type, on the 
balance principle, for use in India and the Colonies. 
The mole-plough^ sufficiently characterised by its name, 
consists of a beam and stilts, furnished with a strong coulter, 
adjustable vertically, Avhose lower extremity terminates in a 
short pointed round iron bar, horizontally disposed. The plough- 
beam, resting on the ground, forms a gauge for the depth at 
which the drain is formed, and the machine is forcibly dragged 
through the soil by means of a chain and capstan. The tunnels 
thus produced are very similar to mole runs, and, in tenacious 
soils, will remain open for a considerable length of time. 
Fowler’s first patent, of 1852, for a mole-plough, is directed 
to dragging a string of drain-pipes into such a tunnel with a 
view of rendering it permanent. Two years later, however, or 
in 1854, he proposed the use of steam haulage, and his steam 
draining-plough, after a severe trial at the Royal Show of 
1854, was much praised by the Judges of Implements. 
Shortly after this, Mr. FoAvler, devoting himself exclusively 
to the problem of steam-ploughing, handed over his draining- 
plough to Mr. Eddington, of Chelmsford, who improved it 
