When the first experiments were being made with the Hay-making Machine,
now commonly used in some parts of the country, it happened that
Shelley, Mrs. Shelley, and Peacock, the author of “Crotchet Castle,”
“Headlong Hall,” and other works of pungent erudition, were walking
through a field where this strange-looking machine was in operation.
Instead of the pleasant sight of the rustic men and women with their
forks and rakes--a scene so full of indelible associations, from
childhood upwards--they saw this quaint monster rolling round the
field over the long swathes of hay, its rotatory forks, or rather
fingers on wheels, flinging up the hay on all sides as it went spinning
onwards. Meditating on the effect, if successful, this would, some
day, have on the vast numbers of poor people in England, to say
nothing of the summer invasions of Irish--whose sole dependence for
the year is the money they make in the English hay-season--Shelley and
the others walked onwards, and left the field. Presently they met a
clownish fellow, who was looking intently at the whirling and whisking
performance of the round-about machine in the hay-field. Shelley,
having no objection to find, in the then adjusted state of society
with regard to the labouring classes, that this machine was a failure,
said to the clown, in a sort of half contemptuous tone--“Now, tell
me,--does that thing answer at all?” The fellow looked Shelley full in
the face--“It answers a deuced deal too well,” said he; “I wish it was
working in the inside of him that made it!”
In this very unsophisticated reply, how vast a question is comprised!
But into it we cannot now enter; our present business is how to
plough by steam; and the smoke from the “nostrils” of a variety of
elegant ploughs, of various horse-and-man powers, is already inviting
our attention. Truly, it requires one to take one’s breath before
commencing the examination!
Old Hesiod, in the second book of his “Works and Days,” after giving
particular directions for the selection of the wood, as to its natural
qualities and form, and also its suitability to an artificial curve,
gravely shakes his venerable head, and says--
“To make a plough, great is the expense and care.”
Virgil, following his great progenitor, enters with still more minute
precision into the details of the selection of the wood and its
manufacture into a plough, adding, that he can “recite to you many
precepts of the ancients--unless you decline them.”
Well, then, to be frank with antiquity, and all its great poets and
philosophers, the present age fairly announces by its practices, that
it _does_ decline, not only the precepts but the example of the
ancients, especially in agricultural matters.
The last and not the least important innovation on agricultural
labour has yet to be consummated; and it would seem from two large
plates, with explanatory remarks, which have been recently published
by Lord Willoughby de Eresby, that a monster innovation is not very
distant;--no less than “Ploughing by Steam.” All great inventions are
the result of gradual improvement on a first idea; and an examination
of these plates naturally induces us to take a cursory view of what has
previously been attempted, and done, in this way.
Not wishing to go back to the “dawning idea” of a steam-plough, (for
the problem was started some fifty years ago), we will begin with
taking a look at Mr. Etzler’s “Iron Slave.” This was invented by a
German, and constructed by an Oxfordshire engineer. A public trial of
the Iron Slave was made in October 1845. A few signal shots were fired
at day-break, the church-bells were set to ring a merry peal, and
all the inhabitants of Bicester and Blackthorn came pouring out into
the fields to witness the steam-performance of the newly discovered
agricultural serf. Booths were erected, and the spectators made a long
morning’s holiday while the Slave did his ploughing; and hoped that
his success would lead, as it ought, to many other morning holidays.
The most important result of this first trial was the establishment of
a new mechanical principle, _viz_., “the transmission of power
from a fixed point to a moving point, going in arbitrary directions
at the will of one man at the steering wheel.” This, it seems, had
been thought impossible by many scientific engineers. The engine was
intended to move and do its work at the rate of three miles an hour;
but whether the Iron Slave had not had his proper breakfast of coals,
nor time enough to digest them into steam, or some part of his inside
was a little out of order, was not accurately discovered; but certain
it is that he could not plough fast enough. In other respects everybody
was satisfied that steam-ploughing was a practicable thing.
In 1847, Mr. John T. Osborne, of Demerara, took out a patent for a
steam-plough, the chief improvement (or distinguishing peculiarity--we
must be cautious in the use of the word improvement,) on all previous
attempts, being the employment of two engines and two ploughs, for one
course of ploughing. While one plough was working in a given direction,
and laying down the chain or rope by which it is to be worked back
to the side from which it started--the other plough was performing a
similar course in the reverse direction. When both had each traversed
the ground once, the engines were removed forward the breadth of one
furrow, by means of a chain or rope; one end of which was attached to
an anchor fixed in the ground a-head.
Another Mr. Osborn, in 1848, tried some experiments near Stratford, in
Essex, with a locomotive steam-engine, constructed for agricultural
works in general, and for ploughing more especially. He appears to
have taken out his patent in conjunction with Mr. Andrew Smith’s
wire-rope--a manufacture of extraordinary strength. In the first trial,
a pair of these peculiarly constructed locomotives was placed opposite
each other--about one hundred and twenty yards apart--with a sufficient
length of wire-rope between them. Although not successful, it
demonstrated a novel fact as between the comparative draught by horses,
and by a long rope, showing that the condition of the modes differ in
a very marked way; the horse draught being upwards, and exercising a
direct control by its proximity to the plough; whereas, the draught by
steam-power and a rope was downwards, distant, and exercised no direct
control over the plough. Hence this experiment, though unsuccessful,
was instructive, and therefore to be valued as a good contribution to
knowledge. Other trials were subsequently made by Mr. Osborn with a
locomotive engine of ten horse power, and the ploughing was well done;
fully settling the question of practicability, but leaving doubts in
the minds of many on the important question of economy.
“These engines,” says a writer in the Mechanics’ Magazine, “possess
great advantages in being applicable to thrashing, and other
agricultural purposes, and can be moved from farm to farm, and from
field to field, with the greatest facility.” No doubt of it. We see
what will soon happen. Thrashing, and _many other_ agricultural
purposes! The great farmers, once in possession of the talisman of a
steam-plough, will never rest till they make it applicable to all sorts
of operations. Already almost every farmer in Scotland is provided
with a stationary steam-engine; a locomotive that can turn--not its
hands--but its wheels to anything, is now his only other thing needful.
In the specification of the very first of these ploughs--Etzler’s Iron
Slave--it is distinctly stated that, although the machine is intended
for ploughing, yet the Slave will be ready at all times to devote his
energies and skill to “sowing, and reaping; and also to making canals,
roads, tunnels,” &c. Exactly so! After we have ploughed, sowed, reaped,
and thrashed by steam, we shall soon find turnips hoed, carrots drawn,
beans plucked up, dried, carted, and stacked; sheep sheared, cows
milked, butter churned, cheese pressed, pigs transformed into pork,
and pork into gammons, by the same omnipotent agency. Hatching eggs by
steam is already an old story.
A patent for a new steam-plough was taken out in January of the
present year by Mr. James Usher of Edinburgh; and another in June,
by Messrs. Calloway and Purkiss. The peculiarity of the former
consists in mounting “a series of ploughs in the same plane round an
axis, so that the ploughs shall successively come into action;” and
secondly, in applying power to give a rotary motion to the series,
“so that the resistance of the earth to the ploughs, as they enter
and travel through the earth, shall _cause the machine_
to be _propelled_”--instead of motion being communicated
to the machine from the wheels which run on the land. The other
invention--that of Messrs. Calloway and Purkiss--mainly consists of a
number of chains working round a wheel, and fitted on the outside with
ploughshares. Rotary motion is communicated by a locomotive.
“I consider,” says Sir Abel Handy, in the comedy of Speed the Plough,
“that a healthy young man between the handles of a plough, is one of
the noblest illustrations of the prosperity of Britain.” But shortly
after saying this, Sir Abel invents a splendid curricle plough drawn
by high-bred Leicestershire horses; who set off at full gallop with
the plough at their heels over hill and dale, and instead of doing
the allotted work a-field, they rush about at random, ploughing up
Salisbury Plain. What would Sir Abel have said to Sir Willoughby de
Eresby’s snorting steam-horse, perfectly under control?
His machinery consists of a locomotive engine, weighing only
three-and-a-half tons, and of a twenty-six horse power. It was designed
by Mr. Gooch. It has a double capstan attached, “removable, when the
engine is required for other purposes.” His lordship does not indicate
any of these; but we may fairly imagine that his farm-engine will
possess the same versatile genius as the inventions which have preceded
it. His description of this machinery is very brief, clear, and without
the use of any technical terms.
“The engine moves across the centre of the field on a light, portable
railway. The ploughs advance and recede on either side of the railway,
at right angles to it.
“The ploughs employed consist of four ordinary, and four subsoil
ploughs, fixed in a frame. It is directed by a person standing upon a
small platform.
“Two such ploughs, one on either side the railway, alternately advance
and recede; the advancing plough working, the other idle until it
regains its proper position for ploughing the next four furrows. On
the completion of the four furrows both ways, the engine and side
frames advance each three feet.
“The ploughs are attached to an endless chain, one hundred and fifty
yards in length. They can be detached at pleasure, or shifted from one
side of the chain to the other. They travel at the rate of _five
miles an hour_. Provision is made in case they strike against any
impediment.”
Arrangements are also made to suit irregularly shaped fields. The full
power of the engine is not exerted with the ploughs, as thus described;
and the number of blades can be increased if desirable. And now for the
next statement, which brings us to a most important consideration.
“In the present state of things, it is difficult to form a correct
estimate of the value of the invention in a commercial point of view.
I will only say that a machine of the power, and with the arrangement
described, would perform the work usually done by _sixteen_
ploughs, driven by as many men, and drawn by thirty-two horses.
Requiring itself the attendance of eight men, and a horse to draw the
water for the engine, it would thus save the labour of thirty-one
horses and eight men. Against this must be set an expense of five
shillings a day for coals.”
In examining the question of economy in the use of steam-power instead
of horses, we shall obtain valuable assistance from a paper addressed
to Mr. J. T. Osborne, of Demerara, by the Council of the Highland
Society. This paper sets the period of the productive labour of a horse
against the unproductive period necessary for its rest, and exhibits
results of a startling kind. Horses are fed and tended three hundred
and sixty-five days of twenty-four hours, or eight thousand seven
hundred and sixty hours in the year. But they work only three hundred
days, of about eight hours, taking the average, or two thousand four
hundred hours a year. Thus we have a clear loss of six thousand three
hundred and sixty hours of unproductive feeding and tending. It may
be argued, that they are not fed and tended throughout the night,
and therefore there is no such loss as the figures displayed by the
Highland Society; but they are fed and tended enough to suffice them
during the night, for which no compensating work is performed, so that
it comes, we think, to nearly the same thing.
According to McCulloch, there are about one million two hundred
thousand agricultural horses employed in Great Britain, which, at
twenty-five pounds per head for maintenance, amounts to thirty millions
sterling per annum for their keep. The unproductive portion, therefore,
he finds amounting to the enormous sum of twenty-one millions seven
hundred and eighty-five thousand three hundred and six pounds. It
will be seen that this estimate is founded on the previous figures
displaying the number of hours of feeding and tendence, compared with
the number of hours’ work, and the consequent loss of six thousand
three hundred and sixty hours. The only compensation for this loss of
hours, represented by the above sum of upwards of twenty-one millions
sterling, is in the value of the manure, which is thus produced at too
great a cost.
“There are insuperable difficulties,” writes the Council of the
Highland Society, “attending the employment of vital power; but
mechanical power puts forth its energy when called for--it can be
regulated, and, at pleasure, stopped. If it is desired to occupy the
entire hours of daylight--to extend the field of operations--to work
up more raw material--the energy of the animal ceases after a time;
but not so that of the machine. The longest hours of summer may be
advantageously employed.” And why not in the shortest nights of winter
also? Could not steam-ploughs be made to carry their own lights with
Hale Thomson’s patent silvered-glass reflectors, like other locomotives?
The next sentence brings us full-butt against the corner-stone of our
social edifice, and moots the question as to the effect of machinery
in increasing the demand for human labour:--“Were the whole period of
daylight industriously employed in the most effective manner--that is,
by the employment of machinery--the demand for human labour would be
augmented in the exact ratio of the increased time, multiplied by the
augmented force of the machinery.”
“Be fruitful and multiply,” said the God of Nature;--“You must be
starved, if you do!” say the beldame economists. Meantime, an immense
proportion of the habitable and fertile earth lies quite uncultivated,
the vast seas are full of prolific food, and the land which _is_
cultivated, is not made the most of. The art of tilling has not kept
pace with other improvements. Before the wonders of steam appeared
in the world there was occasionally a random attempt to introduce
some improvement in tillage, but the experiments originated in a wish
rather than in any definite plan, and were of course a failure and an
absurdity. Dean Swift brought his pungent satire to bear upon these
attempts, in his account of the grand Academy of Lagado, Mr. Lemuel
Gulliver says he was highly pleased with a projector who had discovered
a plan for turning up the ground with hogs, to save the charge of
ploughs, cattle, and labour. The method was beautifully simple. In a
given field you bury at six inches distance, and eight inches deep, a
quantity of acorns in long rows. You then drive six hundred hogs into
the field, who, in search of the food they most love, will root or
plough up the whole into furrows, with their snouts. The absurdities
committed soon led to a cessation of all mere experiments, until at
length came steam-engines, and thence, in due course, the dream of a
steam-plough. This dream we are peradventure about to see realised in
a few months; and then, though our million of agricultural horses will
be diminished, our fine breed of Yorkshire and Lancashire ploughmen
will not be thinned; any more than spinning and weaving machinery
exterminated--as was awfully predicted it would--our army of spinners
and weavers.
“I was bred to the plough,” said Robert Burns, when addressing a letter
to the wealthy gentlemen of the Ayrshire Hunt:--“I am independent;”
but it may turn out that the plough of old will soon be a sorry thing
to depend upon. We are rather reminded of the Prologue to Chaucer’s
“Ploughman Tale,” though he could have had no anticipation that his
cessation from this labour would be final.
“The Ploughman pluckéd up his plough,
When Midsomer moon was comen in,
And saied his beasts should eat ynowe,
And lye in the grasse up to the chin.
He shook off shere, and coulter off drowe,
And hongéd his harnis on a pin.”
“Our strongest hope for the improvement of our social condition,” says
Miss Martineau, “lies in the directing of intelligence full upon the
cultivation of the soil.” The more the powers of science are brought to
bear upon the tillage of the earth, and the production and manufacture
of food, the greater will be the number benefited, and the more
speedily will Miss Martineau’s axiom be verified. Cordially coinciding
with that lady, we wish all success to the important undertaking of
Lord Willoughby de Eresby, and shall be glad to find he accomplishes
and establishes what has hitherto been confined to experimental trials.