STEAM PLOWING. 
89 
wide. With this instrument, roots can be cut 
off, stiff clay dug up, even when full of pebbles, 
much more effectually than with a spade, and 
in situations where it would be impossible to 
bore the holes. 
STEAM PLOWING-. 
What is doing by the ingenious farmers and 
mechanics of this country, towards applying 
steam power to pulverising the earth? That 
this has not been done elsewhere, is no valid 
reason why the attempt should not be made here, 
and persisted in till accomplished; and that 
this will yet be the result, we conceive to be 
a foregone conclusion. If steam can be applied 
to the making, finishing, and even sticking of 
pins; and to the various manipulatory opera¬ 
tions of hand-carding, spinning, and weaving 
of wool, cotton, flax, and silk, even to the suc- 
idea. In plowing, the furrow rising from the 
plowshare, or point, presses the heavy mass 
behind it, up the inclined plane of the mold- 
board, and twists it over, to give it the inverted 
position which good plowing always requires. 
To do this, the furrow slice has to be pressed 
together or compacted by all the pressure neces¬ 
sary to lift and turn the earth, although in light 
and porous soils no prejudicial effects follow. 
But in adhesive lands the result is different. In 
using steam where the amount of power 
required would be of little consequence, all this 
would be remedied by lifting the soil, and even 
so much of the subsoil as might be judicious to 
raise, with a wheel acting as a moldboard; and 
in combination with one or more additional ones, 
the earth would be effectually broken up and 
blended in any manner desired. Many other 
advantages would be thus secured, which we 
cannot now specify. We have no doubt, the 
Paul’s Deep-Draining Machine.—Fig. 32.— b. 
cessful imitation of the salivary smoothing of 
their fibres, then we think the deep-tillage system 
will yet command the powerful aid of steam. 
For light plowing, such as is too frequently 
practised at the north, and almost universally at 
the south, for all crops except sugar, and for 
harrowing and cultivating, we have no idea that 
the steam plow can be ever used with advan¬ 
tage. But for heavy clay lands, and other fer¬ 
tile soils that require breaking up to remote 
depths, to insure the largest crops, we think 
steam is destined, ere long, to lend its potent aid. 
Unquestionably, the most perfect tillage is 
trench spading; next to this is thorough surface 
and deep subsoil plowing, superadded. The 
first is hopelessly beyond reach of American 
farmers; and the last is too expensive to com¬ 
mend itself to general, acceptance. 
In the application of steam to plowing, more 
scientific principles, and a more effectual prac¬ 
tice in the pulverisation of the earth can be 
applied than is possible with the plow, owing 
to the great amount of power necessary to 
carry out this system successfully. We have 
no time to illustrate nor dwell upon this point, 
but content ourselves with pointing out a single 
more perfect tillage which steam plowing would 
enable farmers to apply to their land, would 
augment many of their crops, two or three fold. 
valuable importation of rare stock. 
Doctor G. B. Davis, of Charleston, S. C., who went 
out to Turkey, a few years ago, as cotton 
planter to the Sultan, has brought back some 
valuable domestic animals, to wit:— 
12 White Cashmere goats, 
2 Thibet-shawl goats, 
2 Maltese goats, 
2 Scind goats, 
2 Egyptian goats, 
2 Alpacas, 
2 Brahmin or Nagore cattle, male and female, 
2 Water oxen, or Asiatic buffaloes, 
4 White peacocks, 
4 Aylesbury ducks. 
The Cashmere goats shear from four to six 
pounds of long, fine, white wool. The Thibet 
goats have a coat of fur, which is combed out 
from the long, dark-blue hair, to the amount 
of 16 to 24 ounces a-year, which is worth near 
a dollar an ounce. The Cashmere wool is 
worth about half as much. 
