The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-31 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE BY STEAM.

WHILE the powers of steam and the skill of the
mechanist have been applied with unceasing energy
and perseverance to the manufacture of textile
fabrics, producing a revolution in the industrial
activity of England, it is a singular fact that
nothing of the same kind has been done for agri-
culture, although a pursuit of infinitely more
importance to the welfare, and even to the exist-
ence of the community. By the application of
machinery to manufactures, from the rude hand-
loom to the complicated mechanism which now
turns out woven fabrics by the mile, many millions
have been added to our annual production ; and
yet the plough, which was known to remotest
antiquity, has received but trifling aid from the
vaunted scientific skill of the age. It is true that
occasionally a steam-plough has been announced,
and at agricultural meetings many ingenious im-
plements have been exhibited, but few for the
purposes of tillage have proved of sufficient utility
to induce their being brought Into use ; and so
signal have been the failures of inventors, that it
has almost become a belief that agriculture is
beyond the reach of aid, either from the powers of
steam or mechanical skill. Much of the failure
which has been experienced is, however, no
doubt attributable to the adherence displayed to
the old form of the ploughshare ; and, therefore,
the success to which we are about to allude
may be considered owing, in a great measure,
to the inventor having introduced a new prin-
ciple in his mode of turning up the earth, so that
the whole process of ploughing, harrowing, sowing,
and rolling is performed at one operation.
The machine, which is the invention of Mr. Ro-
MAINE, of Peterborough, in Upper Canada, and for
which a patent has been granted in this country,
is, in appearance, something like a large cart drawn
by two horses abreast. In the body of the cart is
a steam engine of ten-horse power, with tubular
boiler, on the principle of the locomotive engine,
which turns a shaft through the naves of the cart
wheels, and connected, by crank and rods, with a
large cylinder suspended behind and supported on
two smaller wheels, so as to be independent of the
unequal motion of the horses. The cylinder, which
is six feet in length and about three feet in dia-
meter, is armed with projecting iron prongs with
blades at the points which form the diggers. In
each row they are a foot apart from each other ;
but, being arranged in a spiral form, they operate
successively about an inch asunder, so that the
whole of the ground is turned up and effectually
pulverised to any depth that may be required, ac-
cording as the machine is fixed by a screw. The
cylinder is partly enclosed at the back by a box
against which the earth is thrown, and on the top
is a seed roller, with tubes through which the seed
is deposited in rows, and a roller following after
leaves all smooth and complete. Several obvious dif-
ficulties are ingeniously surmounted. By the
cylinder hanging free of the motion of the cart it
is more completely under control from inequalities
in the ground ; the speed may be increased or
slackened without reference to the speed of the
horses, and the regulating screw is at the imme-
diate command of the engineer, who requires no
other assistant than a driver for the horses. The
weight of the machine, including the steam engine
boiler, and the whole apparatus, is not more than a
ton and a half, but as the motion partakes of a pro-
pulsive character, the horses have little more than
to guide the direction, which is a great advantage
in tilling hilly land. An important benefit from
the use of this machine is the large amount of work
which can be performed, and the rapidity with
which a field of grain can be sown in catching
weather, which often proves a serious drawback to
the labours of the husbandman. By the present
method little more than an acre of land can be
ploughed in a day by one team, and then the work
is but imperfectly performed, leaving the operations
of harrowing, sowing, and rolling still to be done.
By this machine, with the aid of two men, or a
man and a boy, ten acres may be begun and
finished in a day, so that in speed and economy
there is a very great gain.
At a time like the present, when labour is becom-
ing more valuable, and there is an increasing de-
mand for more abundant supplies of food, it is
almost impossible to over-estimate the importance
of the application of mechanical skill to agricultural
purposes, particularly in this country, where the
uncertainty of the weather often seriously hinders
the operations of sowing, and, in our Canadian colo-
nies, where the shortness of the season and the
rapidity of vegetation render speed in agriculture
of great consequence. The first cost may be appa-
rently great, but the steam engine may be applied
to thrashing and other farm purposes where power
is required, so that, in reality, it will considerably
lessen expenses, and we have no doubt that, when
its utility has become known, it will be extensively
patronised by our enterprising agriculturists.