Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-12-12
l9aiIp Kennebrr 5nurnal.
The Steam Plough.

One afternoon during the Fat Stock
Show at Chicago. we went out into
the country few miles, IN company with
Prof. A. H. Sabin of Vermont. and . few
other gentlemen, to see steam traction en-
CINE haul gang of ploughs. Steam plough
ing is no new thing, as stationary engines
with cables attached to the ploughs, are
used to considerable extend upon some OF
the large estates in England. But such
ploughing requires two engines, one sta
toned at each side of the field. the engines
alternately drawing the ploughs across the
land to be ploughed. We we're all the
more Interested in seeing the machine be-
cause two New England inventors of our
personal acquaintance. have expended
large sums, and no end of brain work in
the attempt to construct a practical trac-
ton locomotive for heavy farm or road
work.
A steam plough was also exhibited some
years since at triaf in one of our West
ern States. and took first premium for
best machine, but was never heard from
again. The great difficulty has been
to get an engine that could hold to
the ground without sinking and
getting stalled, thus requiring team
to haul it out. The machine exhibited
at Chicago was invented by Mr.. g. H. Ed
wards and C.. H. Wood. Its one feature
that promises to give it prominence above
any similar effort, consists in its broad
track. and the distribution of its own
weight over large surface, so that it can
move safely over soft, miry ground, even
where team could not be driven.
To imagine the endless tread of a COM
mon horse power, with its wheels enlarged
to four feet in diameter, would perhaps
give one some idea of the appearance of
the machine. The plank, as it comes to
the ground in its revolutions. makes I'm
bed to support the weight of the machine.
This NAV be of any size desirable. Inside
OF the belt of Dlanks is room for the water
tank between the four large wheels over
which the planks revolve, two of the
wheels being drivers, and which lock into
the cogs attached to the planks, so that
slipping of the drivers is impossible
The trial was made on soft. marshy
land, which was as wet as water could
make it, a portion ploughed, and with
water standing in the burrows. The ma
chine moved off like a huge elephant.
drawing its gang of ploughs behind it in
IL way that was a surprise to all, and
moved with the same apparent ease over
sod or the softest plowed ground Being
the first full sized machine built, there is
much about it that is crude and unfinished.
the boiler in particular, being too small
for the other parts. and not being protect
ed from the weather by Jacket of any
kind, is not economical of steam. but
while the steam lasted the machine did
all that anyone could ask, and much more
than the visitors had expected.
The inventors believe that the labor cost
of growing wheat will be greatly reduced
by their invention. the power being ap-
plicable in large feds to ditching, plough
ing, cutivating, seeding, harvesting and
threshing. and cleansing the grain, so that
no horse power will be required. thus saw
ing the cost of feeding teams in winter,
and enabling the farmer to work more
hours per day, and get his work done in
better season. The machine may also be
used on the highway for shaping and
hardening the surface of common country
roads, rendering them more desirable for
travel than broken stone roads 1t is not
claimed that steam traction engine, how
ever perfect, will very soon come into use
on the small fields of our New England
farms, but if it succeeds on the large
Western plains, it will exert a material
Influence upon American agriculture.
Mr.. Wood, the junior partner IN the con-
Germ, is not only an inventor and patent
examiner, but also practical farmer, a
combination of qualifications quite desir-
able in one attempting so bold an innova-
ton. The progress of the invention will
be watched with much interest by all to
whose knowledge it may come.-Cor. of
NeW England Farmer.