TRIAL OF THE NAPA GANG PLOUGH.

Patea Mail, Volume 1, Issue 9, 12 May 1875, Page 3

TRIAL OF THE NAPA GANG PLOUGH.

Some 20 years ago several American implement houses were located in Collinsstrect west, and in warehouses of onr general implement linns might he found a great number of articles of United .States manufacture. Among the marketgardeners a few of the ploughs got into use, but they were at no time in fashion. They were bought because they wore cheap—cheaper by half than any plough of English or Scottish manufacture—and in those days ploughs were both dear and scarce. These American ploughs had very short turn-furrows, and the work they made would be pronounced execrable by a Scotchman; the soil after ploughing appeared as if it had been deeply scarified ; it was thoroughly pulverised, and not a trace of a furrow was visible. Of the same character arc the United States ploughs of the present day, and to the work done by tiie Nappa Gang plough, a double-furrowed implement manufactured by Treadwell and Co., of San Francisco, this description will fully apply. This, plough of which an engraving and explanation were some time ago given in “ The Australasian,” was imported by Messrs. T. Robinson, and Co., of this city, through their Dunedin branch which has been the means of placing the implement in the hands of the Now Zealand farmers. It is called H. R. Huie’s Patent Gang plough, the date of the patent being Oct., 18 68. The plough has a substantial wooden frame, with pole for a pair of horses, two cast iron bodies, a cranked axle, and a lever within reach of the driver. The polo can be shifted upwards, downwards, or laterally, as the work may require. Ample provision, indeed, is made for regulating the depth of the ploughing. The width of cut is from 10 to 22 inches. Ploughs of this construction appear to he adapted for light loose soil rather than for the heavier soils which constitute the best wheat lands of this and other countries. A trial of a plough of this description took place on Monday on the farm of Mr. Murphy, at Essendon, in a paddock which had borne a crop of hay last year. The soil was sandy, but containing enough clay to render it brick-iiko when perfectly dry, as before the late rain. The depth reached yesterday was from Gin. to Tin, the full depth to which the rain had penetrated. The horses walked as though they had little to do; it would, indeed, have been much harder work for them to have pulled a colonial single-furrow plough. In California., the sowing is done before ploughs of this description, and no harrowing is eonsiderd neccossary, so that the work of getting in crop is extremely simple. It is not, however, necessary to sow before ploughing, nor would it answer to do so with a Gin. furrow. A New Zealand customer of the firm observes, in writing to Messrs. Robinson, that 11 in suitable land it works more easily than any other double plough.” In this colony a largo quantity of “ suitable” land will no doubt be found for an implement by which a pair of quiet ordinary farm horses can plough throe acres a day with ease. The trial over, a little broadcast sowing-machine, another American invention, was experimented with. It it quite a light affair, in front of the sower by means of a web suspended across the shoulders. The seed is carried in a hopper, and descending through a spout, at the bottom of which is a regulating slide, falls into a centrifugal, to which motion is given by a handle, as in the case of a coffee-mil!. The seed can be thrown regularly to a width of 45ft., so that at a fair walking pace a man can get over 30 acres a day. Skilled sowers being scarce in the colonics this simple little machine should oommand a great sale.