THE NEW DIGGING MACHINE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 135, 7 June 1879, Page 5

THE NEW DIGGING MACHINE

j The London Standard says of the jSmithfield show :— "ln early days the show was confined pretty much to | farmers, graziers, and batchers, and a few of the wisest and most foreseeing of the . landholders. Now engineers, mechanics, and the general public count • for no small fraction of the huge aggrejgate. of people who pay their shillings at the turnstiles. Up tothe!ast hour of the j last evening of the show, and every year, the inventions in agricultural machinery wtich are to be seen for fihia first time more than repay every ! intelligent spectator for a visit." And !of a digging machine which has atjtraoted much attention in Europe, the jsame journal says : j " Last year a model was shown on an invention which looked as if it had a ■great jfature before it, and this year the itself bad been esoitiug a vaat deal of legitimate interest. It ia called | Darby's patent " Pedestrian M broadjside digger. It is meant to supersede steam ploughing by steam digging, ! performing this more perfect manipulation of the soil, it is claimed, at half the joost. It is in appearance something of I the traction-engine character, working the half-dczan double-forked diggers j along one side, It travels over ttia i land broadside on. The trial machine i digs a width of 16ft at once, and the one now on view, which has already ; found a cuajacaer, baa been tried over 1 100 acres of Jand r . seventy of which are I left open for in'sp'ctidti, and' k tbja- data, ; thus furnished show that with' efght- ; j horse power it' will dig from Binto lOin deep at the rate of eight acres in ten '< hours, with one man .and a boy. Alongside the engine and tender tb'ere is a : horizontal shaft, carrying els eccentrics, working alternately the legs and forks, ; and producing a movement backward at ; the rate. of two to four furlongs per j hour. If the system fulfils its promise it will save a good deal of the power '. and manual labor required to work the ; ropes, riggers, . windlasses, anchors, j and porters necessary for eteam ploughing, while effecting an operation of much more value than merely turning a furrow, seeing that it leaves the subsoil in a rough and broken state without bringing it to the stiff acoj and. ensure sufficient cer eation. The' machine now; on view is 21ft wide, of ten horse power, and capable of digging ten to twelve acre's lOta deep in ten hours, afc an estimated cost of 4s 2£d per acre."