The Sun. — 1840-04-23 (London, England)

STEAM PLOUGII.—On Saturday last, another trial was made on the lands of Possil, near Glasgow, of the nevi steam plough, intended for cultivating the sugar lands in British Guiana, and unlike the former exhibitions, this was eminently successful. As has been explaiued in a former notice, the lands in that colony are now thickly intersected by ditches or canals, and it is intended that a }dough or ploughs shall be placed on the soil between these canals, and be worked by a steam engine placed on a punt or boat, which gives power and motion to a reversing pulley, or endless rope, that will be worked round a drum, placed on a punt in the canal immediately opposite. So far as we can judge, there is extremely little difference between this and Mr. Heathcote's steam-plough, exhibited at the Highland Society's show in Dumfries, in September, 1838. The plough intended for British Guiana, possesses this advantage, that the moving and resisting power can be easily shifted by a boy simply propelling the punt a few inches forward in the water; in Mr. Heatheote's,'the extremity on which the drum was placed had to be shifted by levers, so often as the filth was made, and the house containing the engine was moved by the self-contracting of the spars or ribs, of which the outer fabric was formed. This inferred a considerable expenditure of steam-power, which will be entirely husbanded in the plough which has been made by the Messrs. Edington. under the direction of Air. APRae. No one *rho has seen it in operation doubts the perfect applicability of Mr. M'Rae's plough to the abject intended, for, independent of the West Indian soil being as level as a bowling-green, it is entirely free from stones or hard roots, which would otherwise damage the cutters and render the working of the instrument impossible. This new plough is worked by an engine of eight-horse powee, and, if followed by others, will supersede manual or peacant labour to a great extent in this description of tillage, and, independently of its intrinsic usefulness, it will have the effect of making the free blacks much more reasonable. The engine must be fed by coals carried from Britain. Sometime ago, ploughmen, ploughs, and horses were taken out to the West Indies to be employed in this species of labour; but. we understand that both horse and man quailed under the burning heat of the climate, and the experiment was in the majority of instances unsuccessful. The first hint of this new machine, however, we consider to belong to Mr. Tleatheote, and it is a pity his invention has not been subjected to a wider for triato;,,,earoef experiment in the bogs of Ireland or elsewhere i _owHerald. not mistaken, his plough and apparatus stillremai :uiem afterpl os•ed in Locher Moss, exactly as it was laid up in ordinary : the great meeting at Dumfries in 1838. Glos g Laval! t and Sainte Etienne, has just taken place between_ • .a A melancholy suicide, says the Journal de lh,a7nacondemned by the fine for some in . Council ofßessat. Apfraerfmecetroroef who was of the same name, was a neighbour the*a ren tLa Osier e t hado really offending party,.i fraction of the law, but the condemnation was an error, as the . of the farmer, notwithstanding the assurance of the person nio had been condemned. Tke decision of his friends that as soon as the error could be khOwn to - • -•t would be rectified. The dread of seizure and the authorities I preyed upon the mind imprisonment had such an effect upon him, that he quitted his home at night in a state of insanity, and half naked, and fled to the woods. Two days afterwards he was traced by the 1 marks of blood, which he had lost as he forced his way through the bushes, and was seen praying at the edge of a precipice. He fled from the persons who were in search of him, and on the following evening was on the road to Bessat, where he met a waggoner, and asked him for the loan of a knife, which was refused. The poor fellow then returned to the wood, and tearing up his shirt, formed a rope of it, with which be hung himself. The body was found soon afterwards perfectly cold. The order for revolting the judgment had been received two days before this melancholy affair.-- Galignani.  DR.