240
TUB DRAINING PLOUGH ; JURY AWARD.
[Class LX.
work can be done, by less exertion, too, on the part of thelabourer. There is hope, however, that on clay soilsmanual toil will be superseded by the use of
2. The Draining Plough.
But for the American Reapers, Mr. Fowler’s drainingplough* would have formed the most remarkable featurein the agricultural department of the Exhibition. Won-derful as it is to see the standing wheat shorn levelly lowby a pair of horses walking along its edge, it is hardly,if at all, less wonderful, nor did it excite less interest orsurprise among the crowd of spectators when the trialwas made at this place, to see two horses at work by theside of a field on a capstan which, by an invisible wire-rope, draws towards itself a low framework, leaving butthe trace of a narrow slit on the surface. If you pass,however, to the other side of the field, which the frame-work has quitted, you perceive that it has been draggingafter it a string of pipes, wdiich still following the plough’ssnout, that burrows all the while four feet below ground,twists itself like a gigantic red-worm into the earth, sothat in a few minutes, when the framework has reachedthe capstan, the string is withdrawn from the necklace,and you are assured that a drain has thus been invisiblyformed under your feet. The Jury decided as follows:—
The implement went through the trial very well, layingin the tiles with great apparent case, worked by tico horses,with a capstan which was firmly and easily fixed into theground, and afforded a firm traction to the plough by meansof a wire rope and pulley. Progress has been made, sincethe implement was exhibited at Exeter, in rendering thelevel of the drains in a degree independent of the level ofthe surface; but there is still room for further improve-ment in giving to the drain a uniform incline.
The award, therefore, of the Jury was HonourableMention. Since that trial I have thought it right tomake further inquiry into the work of the drainingplough. In the first place, the trial drains were openedand laid hare from end to end. Straightness is of courseone requisite, and the pipes were laid straight; closenessof contact another, and they were perfectly joined. Inlevel, the point on which the Jury doubted the perfectionof the work, there was some deficiency, which, on entirelyflat ground such as this, was a decided fault. That fault,however, has since been remedied for clay land at least.As the plough was shown last year at Exeter, it could notpossibly lay a level drain, because, its under and upperparts being fixed at any unvarying distance, any uneven-ness of undulatory surface must be faithfully copied byan undulating drain below. This year the two parts wereso connected that the workman, by turning a screw, canraise or lower the underground snout which burrows outthe drain. But at the trial the use of this screw dependedon the workman’s judgment, which cannot give the drainabsolute accuracy. A balanced level, however, has nowbeen added to the plough, by which the changes of sur-face are made plain to his eye. Other improvements havealso been made in the implement. The horse-power re-quired has been reduced by a fourth, and the windlass atwhich the horses work need now be shifted only once inthe day. As to the economy of using the drainingplough, it is too expensive to purchase, unless for a largelandowner, but it may be hired by the year or the month.Its inventor is also ready to execute work at his ownrisk by contract, at a saving of from one-third to two-thirds on hand labour—the greater the depth, the greaterbeing the saving. I have only seen the actual cost of twodrainages that have been made by this plough. Theywere were both without tiles and shallow, being only 2.4feet deep. Taking the highest of them, and adding thecost of tiles, the price of tile-draining land at that depth,and at 33 feet apart, would be 14 $. only for work, andwith l}-inch pipes, at 15 s. per 1,000, 18 s. 9 d. for tiles, alltogether 1 /. 3 s. 9 d. y including horses and hire of machine.The plough goes as well, however, at a depth of 4 feet,
nor could the additional cost be material. The ploughhas worked on the following farms :—
Depth.
Acres. ft.
in.
Mr. Fowler, Melksham . .
14
2
G
with pipes.
Mr. Newman, ditto . . .
10
2
0
ditto.
Mr. Illandford, near ditto .
30
3
6
ditto.
Mr. Purch, Down Ampney .
100
without pipes.
Mr. Hall, iireutwood . . .
£00
2
G
with and witho
,, Wormwood Scrub!*,
40
from 2 ft. to 4 ft, with tiles.
Mr. Harris, Darlington . .
now
working 3
6
In clay subsoils, with a gentle fall, the success of thisnew implement seems to be beyond doubt, and in all cir-cumstances the inventor is ready to undertake the riskof the execution.
In now closing this Report, I shall be permitted to saythat, although it is impossible adequately to value anyproductive machinery without detailing its objects andestimating its power to diminish human toil, or to in-crease the results of that toil, I could not have venturedto enter so far into the practice of husbandry, but for theinterest your Royal Highness has long taken in these pur-suits, and, above all, from the high concern entertainedby you in the welfare of that important class among HerMajesty’s subjects to whom agriculture affords the meansnot of harmless or useful amusement merely, but ofanxious subsistence, not unaccompanied now with seriousmisgiving. A sure conviction, founded on no short ex-perience, that those new implements which in the greatExhibition afforded not the least conspicuous testimonyto the advance of English skill in devising mechanicalmeans for the abridgment of labour, can practically affordto the English farmer, if rightly understood, important,easy, and immediate assistance, has emboldened me topursue the necessary chain of evidence with, I fear,tedious minuteness 5 but that minuteness will, I trust, beexcused, if it shall have established any definite truths,which, as affecting the prosperity of so important a bodyof men, maybe thought in some degree to claim evennational importance; and the claim alone will, I wellknow, have secured your Royal Highness’s indulgentattention.
It seems proved, then, that within the last twelve years,since annual country shows of implements were esta-blished by Lord Spencer, Mr. Handley, and others yetliving, old implements have been improved, and new onesdevised, whose performances stand the necessary inquiryas to the amount of saving they can effect. To ascertainthat amount precisely is difficult; but looking throughthe successive stages of management, and seeing that theowner of a stock farm is enabled in the preparation ofhis land, by using lighter ploughs, to cast off one horse inthree, and by adopting other simple tools to dispensealtogether with a great part of his ploughing—that in theculture of crops by the various drills, horse-labour can bepartly reduced, the seed otherwise wanted partly saved,and the use of manures greatly economised, while theborse-hoe replaces the hoe at one-half the expense—thatat harvest the American Reaper can effect nearly thirtymen’s work, while the Scotch cart replaces the old Eng-lish waggon with exactly half the number of horses—thatin preparing corn for man’s food the steam threshing-machine saves two-thirds of our former expense—and inpreparing food for stock, the turnip-cutter, at an outlayof Is., adds Ss. a-head in one winter to the value of sheep— lastly, that, in the indispensable but costly operationof draining, the materials have been reduced from 80 s. to15 s.—to one-fifth, namely, of their former cost; it seemsto be proved that the efforts of agricultural mechanistshave been so far successful, as in all these main branchesof farming labour , taken together , to effect a saving on out-goings. or else an increase of incomings, of not less than onc-kalf*
* As mere reasoning seldom carries conviction, I may bepermitted to mention that whereas in estimates by excellentfarmers 12 horses are still assumed to be necessary for afarm of 400 acres, though with improved farming, I findnow that I can work 460 acres of a mixed farm with 8horses, which are by no means confined to the work of thefarm.—P11. P.