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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
Fowler’s Steam Plow at Work. 
The final results of the thorough and long 
continued trials of Steam Plows, made under the 
vaspices of the Royal Agricultural Society dur- 
ir- "’■"t s.imrner. establish two points: 
(1) That sufficient advance has already been made 
in the construction of steam engines and plows, 
to settle the question of economy decidedly in 
favor of Steam power oyer horse power, in the 
breaking up and preparation of soils for 
seeding—not in all cases, but for a consid¬ 
erable proportion of all arable land. 
(2) That while of twelve or fifteen differ¬ 
ent methods before the public, Mr. Fow¬ 
ler and Mr. Howard are at present the 
only real competitors, Mr. Fowler has 
now the best of the race. At the recent 
trials in England, Mr. Fowler not only 
carried off the principal prizes offered 
by the Royal Agricultural Society, but 
he also won the highest approbation 
of the thousands of practical cultiva¬ 
tors who gathered at the exhibition. 
These trials were not confined to a few 
hours’work on a limited plot of favorable 
land, but they extended over more than a 
week’s time and embraced two large plots 
of 32 and 50 acres, affording a marked va¬ 
riety of soils and circumstances. 
The Judges’ decision was to the effect 
that (1) “ Fowlers is the best application 
of Steam-power to the cultivation of the 
soil, before the public, and the most useful 
one upon the generality of soils, in its 
adaptation to the ordinary portable en¬ 
gine. (2) That Howard’s is distinguished 
as a good apparatus attached to the ordi¬ 
nary farm engine, upon light descriptions 
of soils, and as such it will be a most pop¬ 
ular machine.” The feature of Howard’s 
apparatus, viz: its capability of being at¬ 
tached to ordinary portable engines and 
its adaptability to light lands, led us in 
the September Agriculturist, where we ex¬ 
hibited a sketch of Howard’s plow at 
work, to give the preference to his sys¬ 
tem, especially for the light land of our 
Western prairies, which are to be the 
great field off operations for the Steam 
plow in this country. Subsequent exam¬ 
ination of the two systems, and especially 
of the results of the Leeds Show, have 
led us to modify the opinion previously 
held. We are further convinced that 
the Steam plow is by no means to be 
confined entirely to the broad prairies 
of the West, but it will be found well 
adapted even to the small field system of 
the older States. Steam power, wliere- 
ever applicable, is far cheaper than that 
obtained from the muscles of animals, 
and the heavier the land, the greater will 
be the gain from the application of steam. 
And if, as was proved at Leeds, a strong 
clay soil can be thoroughly broken with 
Fowler’s apparatus, for $1 an acre, when 
the same work would cost fully $2.50 if 
done by horse power, the subject is one 
of vast importance to American farmers 
generally. In England it is estimated 
that the use of Steam plows upon only 
three-tenths of the cultivated soil, will 
dispense with the use of 240,000 horses, 
saving their cost, their feed, and their at¬ 
tendance. Their work will be done by the 
coals that now' lie dormant under the sur¬ 
face.-We are happy to announce 
that Mr. Fowler has sent one of his Steam 
plow’s to this country under the care of 
his agent, Mr. R. W. Eddison, who is 
taking measures to exhibit its practical 
working here. We have been in correspon¬ 
dence with Mr. E., who is now at Philadel¬ 
phia, and had expected ere this to witness 
the apparatus' in actual operation, but, unfor- 
