257 
The Evolution oj Agricultural Implements. 
cote’s patents were reduced to practice by Mr. Josiah Parkes, 
C.E., afterwards Engineer to the Royal Agricultural Society, 
who reclaimed Red Moss in Lancashire by the use of apparatus 
which really anticipated modern steam-tillage. An interesting 
illustrated account of Heathcote’s plans is given in the Highland 
Society’s Transactions for 1839, in which year a deputation from 
that society, headed by the Marquis of Tweeddale, visited Red 
Moss and reported on the work in progress. 
In commencing the reclamation of a bog, a road was first 
traced by simply cutting two parallel drains about twenty feet 
apart. Upon this road wms launched a steam-engine, furnished 
with a windlass, and carried upon an endless railway of sufficient 
width to secure its buoyancy when moving over the spongy 
ground. On either side of the road, and at a distance of some 200 
yards from it, other roads were made in the same way as the first, 
and upon these were launched certain “ auxiliary carriages ” 
acting as anchors. Two ploughs travelled back and forth, one 
on either hand, between the engine and the anchors, which were 
both advanced by the width of a furrow after every bout. The 
plough was rendered buoyant by the use of wide wheels, its 
weight of 12^ cwt. being distributed over 10 square feet of bog. 
The engine had two cylinders, 10-inch diameter and 24-inch 
stroke ; it burned from 1 to 2 tons of coal daily, and, propel- 
ling the plough at the rate of 2 miles an hour, turned over eight 
acres of bog per day. Such was the earliest practical effort 
made in this country to apply steam-power to cultivation, an 
effort which must always greatly redound to the credit both of 
Mr. Heathcote and his able lieutenant, Mr. Parkes. 
Passing over certain reclamations of bog and moor in Galway, 
of which an excellent account by Mr. Roberts, of Haslemere, 
appeared in this Journal for 1878, it will suffice, in con- 
clusion, to summarise a second report from the same hand, 
published in the Journal of 1879, describing the Sutherland- 
shire reclamations already alluded to. 
About 1870 the Duke of Sutherland commenced his ope- 
rations at Uppat with a common plough and portable engine, 
and here his Grace spent many hours watching this feeble im- 
plement battling with boulders and roots. The more mishaps 
befell the crude apparatus, the more determined the Duke 
became to carry out the work by means of steam-power, and, in 
1871, a special plough and a pair of 14-horse power engines 
were procured from Messrs. John Fowler and Co. for the purpose. 
By this set of tackle, and after immense difficulties, the surface 
was at length ploughed, and a new era in the work of land- 
reclamation commenced. The Duke’s operations extended 
