MAGAZINE OP SCIENCE AND ART. 
267 
My object in writing is, to publish my c’alm to the 
invention of a. tractive engine, suitable either to the 
ro3d or the field, capable of exerting a horizontal draw¬ 
ing power equal to four fifths of its weight, at a speed 
of 8 to 10 miles an hour. 1 do not state this as its 
maximum capacity, but as I have achieved this in a 
model, I consider it a safe statement to make, knowing 
it t i be within the limit of achievement; but as its 
success is not dependent on that of a model, but is 
capable of demonstration by arithmetical calculation, 
based on acknowledged mechanical data, I do not hesi 
tate to say that its capacity cau be developed to a much 
higher point both in speed and power. I do not bring 
this forward as an idea to be perfected and rendered 
practicable eventually, but the discovery of a principle 
capable of immediate application, and thoroughly suited 
to the filling up that great vacuum in the application 
of steam power, the duty of the horse and the ox 
in the field and on the road. The following statistics with 
regard to the power of an engine of ,5 tons weight will 
afford some idea of its character, The data on which the 
following calculations are made are taken from a work on 
the “ Life of George Stevenson," and are those on which 
his conclusions with regard to the introduction of the 
railroad were based. The power necessary to draw a ton 
on a level road va. ies from 3d lbs. to 500 lbs. according as 
the condition of the road varies from the best to the 
worst; and which is called rolling resistance, and which 
in my case I calculate at 6'0 lbs. With this amount of re¬ 
sistance to the ton, on a level, my engine is capable of 
drawing one hundred and fifty tons—it can ascend any 
practicable grsde even to, say 1 in 2—and I feel confident 
an engine can be constructed capable of conveying 100 
tons of merchandise on an ascent of one foot in four with 
perfect ease and safety Its locomotive powers are not 
affected by the usual inequalities of‘the surface of the 
road. As a steam plough, its principle of locomo¬ 
tion is thoroughly suited to the character of the general 
surface of the soil. The draught capacity of an engine 
weighing 3 tons (reckoning 3. 0 lbs. necessary to draw a 
plough^ is equal to the traction of 3d ploughs through the 
earth at the same time : or to plough, sow, and harrow by 
one passage over the soil fifty acres of ground per day 
As I cannot extend my remarks to the principle on 
■which the engine Is based, I shall devote the remaining 
portion of my letter to a few remarks on the progress 
of the times and its relation to machinery, for it is not 
the immediate effects of an engine as the multiplier of 
wealth, so much as its ultimate effect in ripening and 
maturing the intelligence and happiness of mankind that 
renders it valuable to society. 
One of the greatest anomalies of the many with which we 
are surrounded, and which from custom we pass over 
almost unnoticed, is the fact that while the ingenuity of 
men has multiplied, by the aid of mechanism, the labour 
applied to the production of the conveniences and lux¬ 
uries of life to an almost unlimited extent, that branch of 
industry that provides our necessities—our food—has 
received little or no aid from the same source. Undoubt¬ 
edly a cause for this extraordinary fact exists, and the 
pursuit of it to its ultimate source might prove very 
amusing to a speculative mind ; but as it might convert 
the subject Into a political question, and as I presume 
your journal shuns any approach to political matters, 
except those of an abstract scientific nature, I shall only 
remark that the commercial and social history of the 
world impresses us with the faet that there exists such a 
near relationship between monopoly and social stagnation 
and apathy that the terms maybe considered synonomous. 
Some such cause may have had its influence here; for 
the-whole history of the land question goes to establish 
the fact, that the possession of the soil as a rule has 
never been coveted as a source of multiplying production, 
but rather as an engine of extortion, by which the nece 
siliet of consumers may become ministers to the rapacity 
of possessors it matters not, however, what Is the cause 
The faet of a comparative stagnation in this branch of 
industry standi patent to all, and the result is, that while 
those articles that the ingenuity of the artizan and me¬ 
chanic contribute to the wealth and comfort of society 
have been gradually cheapened and multiplied till they are 
within the reach of the poorest So far have the pro¬ 
prietors of the soil been from developing a proportionate 
improvement, that their productions have bvtl Increased 
in price and scarcity in the same time. In the process of 
bringing the soil under cultivation the same tedious and 
expensive method is adopted that originated probably 
with \dam. But though some little improvement in the 
etficiencv of the instruments used may have taken place, 
even this has been the result of the artizan’s ingenuity : 
and so tedious, laborious, and expensive is the system of 
raising food that the produce of the soil has been ever 
kept at a high price, partly by the fact that but a paucity 
of an intelligent community are willing to engage in the 
occupation that entails so much bodily labour, and partly 
through the tedious and expensive nature of the labour 
employed, as well as the uncertainty that attends it; so 
that the cry of those who arc continually warning settlers 
off the land, by the threat that they will but bring down 
the price below a remunerating rate, does appear at first 
sight to have a little reason in it. If there is one thing 
that the history of agriculturists proves more forcibly than 
another. I think it is the faet that they bear the palm for 
obstinacy to innovation or improvement The fact of the 
present condition of this profession compared with that of 
others is a physical proof; and whether that intimate 
relation that appears always to have existed between 
governments and landowners has led them to expect more 
as privileges than as the result of their own energy, is a 
matter for the judgment of themse ves to decide, The 
first dawn of intelligence in the mind is the conviction of 
ignorance, and neither a man nor a nation is likely to 
make a very energetic step towards improvement until 
they have become convinced that it is both practicable 
and desirable. In every thing wrong, both in the moral 
and physical world, there exists the seed and the 
germinating power of an inevitable destruction, and 
monopolies by their own exclusiveness, under the 
influence of a false economy or excessive avarice, but 
sow the seeds of powerful competitors which spring up 
and eventually destroy them. But a few years since and 
the landed interest in our mother country had no compe¬ 
titor ; its ek Ju’dveness, by stimulating excessive competi¬ 
tion in the * a and manufactures, has resulted in the 
production of tM team-engine, with all its appliances for 
production and wealth, and while t has been the instru¬ 
ment to curb the overgrown influence and power of a 
class, and reduced it to more appropriate propottions, t 
has raised up another whose existence and prosperity 
depends on the absence of all restriction on trade and of 
all monopoly, and to whom the present commercial pros¬ 
perity of the Uriti-h people is mainly due. 
After all the boasted superiority in intelligence and 
knowledge of the present age we really often meet with 
occurrences that would induce a doubt whether there is 
any real improvement in the aggregate mental capacity of 
our generation, and whether our boasted knowledge is 
anything more than a little extra accumulation of tacts, 
and not a more extended recognition of principles. Fifty 
years ago the overproduction, threatened by the introduc¬ 
tion of machinery, caused general alarm, and although 
labour is but the step to the production and acquisition 
of wealth it seemed a dreadful thing that this wealth 
should become procurable without the usual expenditure 
of labour. The same croaking voiee still proclaims *• That 
plenty is poverty." and the reason of listeners, mystified 
with financial puzzles, yields acquiescence— 11 an Over- 
production of food certainly must be a very great 
social evil." That lessening in price which attends plenty, 
constitutes the very source of improvement, for the 
wit and intelligence of every producer is put to the test,, 
by economy of labour, improving the system, and n- 
deavouring to reap as large a profit as possible; for, active 
competition, an • that amount of remuneration to labour 
that stimulates by a fair return, and neither disappoints by 
its meagreness or slackens the energy by its success, 
keeps alive the activity and intelligence, as well as pro 
motes the happiness of those engaged in it. Why a 
similar elaborate system to that applied to the production 
of the conveniences of life should not also extend to agri 
