The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-26 00:00:00

SITN* LOINIDON., MONDAY 'EV'ENI'NG, OCTOBER 26, 1857.

" wrecks'' to which We now invite attention are of
a far more vulgar, though not less shocking character.
In many—we are assured in most—of the cases
which occur in British waters the ship is endangered
not by the visitation of God, but the recklessness of
man. The vessel has put to sea in an unseaworthy
state, or she is badly found, or badly handled, or
badly commanded. The "onsequence is that she
runs aground, or catches fire, or is obliged to be
abandoned, or founders outright, and the escape of
her crow depends upon the chances of relief provi-
dentially afforded. The elements really appear to
play but a subordinate part in the aggregate of
catastrophes. The entire number of casualties in
the year referred to was 1,163, and of these only
121 took place during weather which in nautical
estimate would amount to a storm. As many as
19 actually occurred in a dead calm, 58 in a
" light" breeze, 49 in " gentle" breeze, 98 in
a " moderate" breeze, and 154 in a " fresh"
breeze ; while only 492 happened during any of
those atmospheric conditions by which sailors clas-
sify the successive developments of " a gale." On
turning to another table of the statistics in question
we soon discover why so little account need be
taken of the weather. Excluding the results of
collisions, 368 ships were totally lost, in addition to
a still greater number damaged, during the period
under review, and of these examples upwards of
200 can be referred to causes directly connected
either with the worthlessness of the vessel or the
incompetence of her crew. We give the precise
figures, because figures alone in such matters can
convey an adequate notion of facts, and the reader
will be amazed, we think, when we say that 17
ships out of the 368 were abandoned, and 37 went
right to the bottom, simply and purely because
they were unseaworthy, or, in other words, ought
never to have been sent to sea. Defective com-
passes and defective charts again come in for their
share in the account, and the rest of the tale is
made up of errors, neglects, and carelessness in
their several forms. " Stress of weather" in all its
shapes can only be charged with 148 of the catas-
trophes, but it is rather an encouraging feature in,
the casethat intemperance does not figure conspicu-
ously in the work of mischief. Two only out of
the mass of disasters are set down to this source.

mon plough, three being required at an expense of
at least 15s, per acre. Tried against time, first for
two hours and again for one hour, the steam plough
drove four furrows at that depth at the average rats
of seven acres in a working day of 10 hours, stop-
pages included, the length of the furrows being
330 yards. The total cost was computed not to
exceed 9s, per acre, and in order that this estima-
tion may be understood the following particulars
are given :—Taking the average size of the fields to
be about 17 acres, there will be 21 days' work and
one removal of the machinery for each field, each
removal occupying half a day, so that two fields, or
34 acres, will be the amount of work for one week.
The daily expense of coal, oil, water, and labour is
reckoned at 355. ; the two shiftings require four
horses half a day each time, costing—say, 205., but
a deduction of—say, 10s. may be made for the two
half days' saving of fuel, water carrying, &c. Then,
for wear and repairs, of course much depends upon
the number of days worked annually and the soft
or stony character of the country ; but, taking the
outlay required at 1201. per annum, and the time of
working 30 weeks, we have the heavy item of 41.
per week. Adding these various sums and dividing
by the number of acres ploughed weekly we get Os.
as the utmost cost of the heavy land work referred
to.

Names of
Companies.

Ashtn &Oldh
Birmingham
Coventry.. • •
Derby .. • • • •
GrandJunctn
Do., 6 pr. Ct.
Grand Union
Kennt & Avn
Leeds &Livrp
Leicester .. • •
Leicstr &Nth
Long htiorogb
Macclesfield.
Heath .• • • • •
Oxford.. • • • •

On Thursday the machine was tried on somewhat
lighter soil, a wheat stubble partly overspread with
farmyard manure. The length of furrow varied
front 220 to 236 yards, thus necessitating frequent
changing of widening gear, &c., at the ends of the
work, which, however, were accomplished in an
average space of half a minute. In one hour nearly
an acre was turned over seven inches deep ; with
the abovestated conditions as to the dimensions of
fields, &c., this is equivalent to about 48 acres per
week, at a total expense of only 6s. 31 per acre,
whereas the common cost in the district of such
laborious pair-horse ploughing is 12s. au acre. The
excellence of the work was, however, still more the
theme of universal approval than the great economy
with which it was performed.
A trenching plough, taking only two furrows'
breadth, but lifting up a stratum of subsoil and lay-
ing it upon the buried top-slice, was also tried, and
the effect of its action was considered equal to that
of manual digging, whether for depth, which
averaged 12i inches, or for the complete pulveriza-
tion of the dry soil by the rapid progress of the im-
plement. To perform suck work Thy horse-power
would cost it is said, 355. per acre; that is, if it
could be done at all. But the steam-plough, with-
out trampling or injuring the soil or subsoil,
effected nearly half an acre of this deep trenching
in an hour ; or say 22 acres per week, at the total
cost of 13s. 9d. per acre.
On Friday and Saturday a considerable con-
course of spectators assembled in the various trial
fields, the many farmers and landowners present
expressing themselves with one voice as fully per-
suaded not only of the profitableness of the steam-
plough, but of the great value of its work ever that
done by horse teams. Mr. Fowler has been for-
tunate at last in obtaining a sufficient trial, in a
suitable district, by men of business thoroughly in tent
upon doing justice to a novelty like the steam-engine
in p!oughharness ; and whether or not the Highland
Society may withhold its reward for want of greater
competition, there is no doubt that the judges' re-
port, after another day's trial at Edinburgh, will
thoroughly awaken the agricultural public to the
great advances which have lately been made in
steam culture.

The facts above stated carry quite evidence
enough of the proposition with which we com-
menced, and prove beyond question that a large
proportion of shipwrecks on these coasts admits
of prevention. Even those which are directly
attributed to the fury of the weather might possibly
have been in some instances escaped with better
vessels or better seamanship; and it is painful in
the extreme to reflect that, with a state of things
like this, men should be exposed to the penalty of
imprisonment for refusing to proceed to sea in ships
probably unseaworthy. As owners can be protected
by insurance there is no self-interest at work to
keep them in a proper course, and the temptation to
continue worthless vessels in use is constantly ope-
rating. We are told of a certain schooner so rotten
that her own anchor positively pulled her bows
out; and that such things are likely to happen under
such arrangements is sufficiently plain. It has been
eveninferred from the declared rate of mortality
among ships that some of them must be kept alive
and afloat beyond their appointed time. Out of
33,000 vessels and upwards known to be existing
in a particular year it is said that only 129 were
broken up. Whether that number is below the
proportion due to the natural infirmities of a ship
is more than we can pretend to decide, but as a
general principle it appears to ua clear that if the
insurance system destroys the precautionary mo-
tives which would otherwise be at work the law
should in some manner step in, and do as much for
life as is already done for property.
The other feature most noticeable in the
accounts before us is of a more pleasing kind.
A system of lifeboat establishments is maintained
to such effect on the coasts of these islands that its
instrumentality is exceedingly conspicuous in the
table of lives happily preserved. It must be
understood that casualties specified in the preceding
paragraphs placed actually in danger no fewerthan
2,764 souls ; indeed, excepting for succour of some
kind, those figures would have represented the loss
of life from shipwreck during a single year, and in
our own seas only. In the greater number of in-
stances escape, of course, has been due to the small
craft of various kinds plying about, or to the boats of
the sinking vessel itself, but life boats alone saved
362 lives in the 12 months, and the apparatus of
mortars, rockets, &c., employed from the shore
as many as 262 more. Perhaps it is not too
much to conclude that where the agency of the
life-boat proved thus serviceable no other agency
would have succeeded, and certainly there is none
on which so much- reliance can be placed in the
most perilous class of emergencies. Harbours of
refuge may do much, but they must be far apkrt,
whereas a lifeboat establishment can be formed
orr almost any point of the coast, and is
sure to find the immediate support of active and
daring seamen. The only impediment to the
multiplication of these establishments is a
very surmountable one—the want of money and
the Royal National Lifeboat Institution--a
society which has benevolently chlrged itself 'with
this good work—appears certainly deserving of
public support. There seems, indeed, hardly any
limit to the reduction which may be accomplished
in these annual disasters by the exercise of vigi-
lance beforehand and the provision of succour at
all times. Nearly two-thirds of the catastrophes
as classified above ought to be eliminated from
the list if all vessels were sent to sea in
good condition, well found and well manned.
Of the rest, or those due to the violence of storms,
many could probably be robbed of their fatality if a
lifeboat were at hand for rescue, and there is surely
nothing in either of these requirements which
should be beyond the means of the richest nation
and the greatest maritime Power in the world.

GREAT STEAM PLOUGH TRIAL
AT STIRLING.

Ann held important of agriculturists has just
been
tirling to adjudicate the Highland
and Agricultural Society's
ats
premium for the best
steam plough. Recently, as is well known, steam-
ploughing has formed an attractive feature at agri-
Cultural s icieties' gatherings, Mr. Boydell's locomo-
tive engine, with its " endless railway," Mr.
Smith's cultivator, and Mr. Fowler's plough (both
hauled by wire-ropes, windlass, and anchored-
pulleys), having baen exhibited in work to crowds
of farmers and sightseers ; but only on one occasion
has a prize been awarded, namely,
at the Yorkshire
Agricultural Society's meeting, when Mr. Boydell's
engine, the only invention there competing, was
thus honoured by the judges. The SAlisbury trials,
unsatisfactory as they were, have not yet been pro-
nounced upon by the Royal Agricultural Society,
and it is gratifying to find that the Scotch farmers
who adopted the thrashing machine of Meikle, took
the lead in the improvement of ploughs, applied
the discoveries of Deanston Smith, and first found
the advantage of every farmstead having its steam
chimney, are foremost in giving their deliberate
sanction to the steam plough as a nvaus of better
and more profitable husbandry.
List ye sr the Stirling General Agricultural As-
sociation practically tested the capabilities of a
method of agriculture invented by Messrs. Fisken,
ofleuchterarder, by which a common portable steam
engine stationed in the field is employed to drive a
travelling implement by means of a rapidly-moving
hemp cord suspended above the ground, and a fixed
wirerope, alongwhich the ploughing machine winds
its way. In a remarkably fair and considerate re-
port the committee stated that, although defective
in several mechanical details, this ingenious appa-
ratus fully demonstated the value of its principle
of action, one of their chief grounds of approval
belng its adaptation for working any tillage imple-
ment besides the plough, while the engine may be
suitably employed in thrashing, or any farm mill-
work whatever, thus being really calculated to dis-
pense with one-third cf the farmer's horses.
This year a prize of 2001. has been offered by the
Highland Society, leaving the committee of the
Stirling Association to conduct the trials and adju-
dieation. The three days of private trial began on
Tuesday, followed by a public exhibition on Friday
and Saturday upon Mr. Forrester's farm at Stewart-
hall the judges being Mr. Henderson, of Banks ;
Mr. Patterson, of Offers ; assisted by Mr. Miller,
of Millfield, as engineer, while Mr. Finnie, of
Swanston, Mr. Gibscn, of Woolmet, and Mr. Hall
Maxwell, the secretary, were present on behalf of
the Highland Society A considerable competition
was anticipated, etlecially as the three favourite
classes of schemes, represented by a locomotive
traction-engine, a travelling engine with rotary
digger attached, and haulage by wirerope, are now
taken in hand by our need influential manufac-
turers. However, owing to a variety of causes,
Mr. Fowler's steare-plough alone made its appear-
ance,—an unfortunate circumstance for the public,
as in spite of the Prolonged and thorough testing
to which the machine was subjected the element of
simultaneous comparison has been entirely want-
irg. This machine a similar in construction to that
shown at Salisbuil, though with minor improve-
ments; the consbinadlo-horse engine and windlass
at one end of the teld, and an anchorage at the
other, travelling very slowly, so as to keep always,
opposite to the ploughing, and dragging the imple-'
ment to and fro br means of wire ropes. The.
ground under operation on Wednesday was a level
clover lea, of tenacious course land, in an unfit state
for ploughing until mellowed by frost before the
usual ploughing season of February. Yet the qua-
lity of the work was superior to that of ploughing
done by horses for tie sake of comparison. At 5
inches deep two horses were unable to work a coat-

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