, 1880-08-25

VOWS 300 CHOKING LmD6E oar Tie way.
Whatever causes may be assigned for
the fact, i, ID remarkable that the growth
of steam husbandry during the quarter of
q century since it's beginning has been
utterly inoommensurate with the capabili-
ties Of the power and with the achieve
ments of the ~steam-englne in other direc-
tions. For rspidity of adoption and ex
tension over the kingdom the steam plough
cannot compare with the BICYCLE. While
the moving machine and hay-tender have
displaced the .scythe and mandrake to a
great extent; while reaping-machines ap-
pear in a majority of our hGrvest-felds;
while in barns and rick-yards there remain
scarcely such things as fails, and but few
horse.driven threshing machines, except in
special localities. horse teams on tens of thou
sands of farms continue to drag the slow i'm
plements of tillsge, with a waste of power,
an inferiority of mechanical effect, and a
sacrifice of invaluable time in favourable
weather which are distressing to the mind
of an engineer.
1t is quite true that. having the whole
world for q market. a sufficient number OF
customers has been found to do wonders IN
the case Of the few inventors who have
really succeeded in ~ploughipg and cult
waiting by steam-power with speed and
economy. Thus, the Steam-Plough works
at Leeds. originated by the late Mr.. John
Fowler only some 20 years ago, and devel.
oped by the energy of his coadj utor and
successor Mr.. David Greig, are now in the
first rank among the great factories OF that
town. Employing from 1000 to 1900
hands, with engineering machines and tools
on a scale surpassed by few establishments
of the kind in England, the Steam-Plough
Works frequently turn out as much as
100000 worth of products per month
not altogether in steam ploughs, but inclu.
ding traction engines, colIiery winding
engines, and other massive iron and steel
machinery. John Fowler ard Co, have a
very extensive trade with various countries
on the Continent, having supplied, for ex-
ample, 100 of their double-engine sets of
ploughing apparatus to Saxony; but in
England, in spite of the great number of
engines now at work, the proportion is
comparatively nothing in view of the
immense area remaining to be brought
under steam husbandry. Much of the
steam ploughing is performed by c~ontrac-
tors, who work for hire. One man 10 this
line owns no fewer than SO of Fowler's pow
ertul engines, tilllng in the season proba-
bly, 500 to 700 acres per day; another has
IL sets of tackle, dealing with some 1900
ceres per week !; other men let out their
half dozen sets or less. Still, the total
number of steam ploughs supplied to con-
tractors, companies, and individual farmers
by all the manufacturers-namely, John
Fowler and Co. of Leeds {; J. and F, How
ard, Of Bedford; Aveling and Porter. OF
Rochester ; Bartord and Perkins, of Peter
borough F. Savage, of Lynn; T. Fiskeu.
OF Leeds, and one or two smaller makers
has made only a slight inroad upon the
vast acreage where the c~beapness and
celebrity of steam work might and will
revolutionize farm practice, both on clay
and light land.
Now, the advent of the steam digger is
of value for redirecting attention to the
promise which lies liz steam h%usbandry.
A new departure is taken ; another com
peting system enters the field. 10 addition
to the ateam plough hauled by wire rope,
the public have now before them the
steam digger-either attached behind an
engine travelling upon the land or driven by
a light flying rope from the engine station
ed at a distance. But only a very theoreti-
cal or sanguiue person will imagine that
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