Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-12-19
Stealn-PIoughing i'm England


Whatever may be the objections to
the use of the steam ploughs-and they
are fast being overcome-they impress
the unaccustOmed visitor with great
force. / had read of them and had
seen pictures of them, and knew of the
amOunt of work that they accomplish
ed; but to see them standing here,
more than dozen of them In shed af-
ter shed, showed how inadequate had
been my preconceived idea concerning
them. --..f--
John Fowler & Co., of Leeds, show
several sets of apparatus with engines
of from six to twenty nominal horse
power, with the gang ploughs, grub
bers, rollers, cultivators, and harrows
to be used with them. 1t would be inn
possible to give correct notion of the
system OF steam cultivation without
'quite full illustrations. In Fowler's
system two engines are used-engines
which are capable of travelling on the
road, moving about the fields,
and carrying their apparatus s
with them. Under the boiler
horizontal drum carries a. steel wire
rope, by which the plough is drawn.
The plough, which turns from four to
eight furrows, according to the horse
power of its engine, is a gang OF
ploughs attached to an iron fra ne, and
so balanced that as it proceeds in Ell
ther direction the gang which is to
make the reverse cut is cooked up in
the air. The ploughman sits over the
centre OF the gang, and has in front OF
him steering wiHdlass, by which the
direction of the plough is regulated.
The grubbers, cultivators, harroWs,
subsoilers, etc., are all arranged in a
similar way.
When at work, one engine stands at
each side of the field, each with its rope
attached to the plough, and this is
drawn backward and forward between
them, the engines moving forward
along the headland for each new bite.
In order to protect the rope from fric-
tion, it is supported here and there by
little trucks called rope porters.'
A pair of the larger engines and a
six-furrOw plough will turn up from
fifteen TO twenty acres per day, almost
irrespective ofdepth. within any usual
agricultural limit. The system has
been in practical use for twenty years
past, and has been undergoing constant
improvement, until it seems now to be
very nearly perfect. 1t is, OF course,
only on farms of the largest size, where
many hundreds of acres are ploughed
annually, that these large double en-
gine sets of apparatus are used, but
there are companies and associations of
farmers in all parts of England which
own one or more sets TO be let out for
hire, 80 that even small farmer may
have his ploughing done by steam at a
cost much less than that of doing it by
horse labor, when it is considered that
be is relieved from the cost of main
tanning his horses throughout the year.
The mere matter of economy, however,
is secondary consideration as COM
pared with the quality of the work
done. The greater speed of the 5team~
plough gives much more thorough
pulverizatiOn and aerAtion to the soil,
the treading of horses feet is entirely
done away with, and the condition of
the land generally is greatly improved,
Especially as the subsequent operation
may, where fields are sufficiently large,
all be done by 5team-harrowing,r roll
ing, and seed drilling. Indeed, the
only drawback to this system seems to
be the large amount of capital that it Is
necessary to invest-a pair of twenty
horse power traction engines, an eight
turrow plough, and 800 yards of steel
rope costing no less than e2372 III, 1907
To give an idea of the scale Of the
whole system it may be stated that
six-furrow balance plough is about
thirty feet long, and weigh over two
tons.-Col. GEO. E. WARING, Jr., in
Harper's Magazine for January.