CAN THOMPSON'S ROAD STEAMER "SPEED TIDE PLOUGH"?

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 131, 11 August 1870, Page 7

CAN THOMPSON'S ROAD STEAMER "SPEED TIDE PLOUGH"?

[From tho "Farmer.""]

We have learned to know the value of traction engines upon the rail ; we have also seen the practicability of adopting some of the best forms of them upon the road ; and*we are now discussing the propriety of introducing them in travelling form, upon the field. Of course, certain wiseacres have a certain amount of foregone conclusions coujured up in their minds, that nothing short of ocular demonstration, and not even that, would convince them of error ; but facts are stubborn things to get over, and it is worth while marshalling the judge of their importance, both present and prospective. If these facts point —as we are verily well impressed — not only to the possibility but the practicability of employing a travelling engine to do the work of cultivating the land as economically and well as the best forms of stationary engines, or rather engines moving along at the land's end, then we opine a case has been made out to command the ear and attention of our readers.

What are the facts referred to? They are these : — That Mr Thompson, C.E., Edinburgh, has constructed an engine, with its accessories, capable of travelling ever any ground required. It matters not whether it be a rough road newly laid with broken flint or whinstone, or a well macadamised promenade ; a steep gradient, or a slight incline ; the shingly beach, or the sandy desert place, with holes and knolls uncomfortable enough to the foot promenader ; the beaten headland, or the ploughed field — away it goes with a "will" that is perfectly astounding, and the traces left behind this snorting giant, of at least 6 tons weight, are about as imperceptible as if a garden rolled had been passed over the surface, and all this too, be it observed, with a load of more or less weight to draw. But in order to place our assertions beyond the region of a doubt and elevate them to facts, we have been at pains to verify them. We find that an 8-horse steamer drew 32 tons weight a distance of 8 miles, where there were rising gradients of 1 in 16, where it occasionally had to pass over newly laid " road metal," and that, too, without apparently crushing the stones with its own weight. It was made to run over the sands of Portobello, near Edinburgh, below high- water mark, when they were fully charged with moisture, as well as when they were loose and drifting before the breeze. It also crossed a field of soft grass, and trenched paddock, with less indentation than the foot of a human being ; and its feat as an agricultural traction engine with two double ploughs at his tail, before at least a thousand spectators, on the trial ground of the last meeting of the Highland and Agricultural Society, must be fresh, in the recollection of our readers.

All this is accomplished owing to a beautiful and ingenious contrivance — the wrapping or muffling up of the ordinary wheels in a great-coat of vulcanised indiarubber. To reduce friction to a minimum, they are formed upon a broad basis, no less than 12 inches in width, and from 5 inches upwards in thickness.

Looking to the cumulative evidence of the various trials, and to its operations in swamps and meadows, in grass land and in fallow, we have no loophole of escape to doubt or distrust its operative powers as a plough engine. If it can be made to draw two double ploughs eight inches deep in a retentive soil, with ease and alacrity, it can also be made to plough these, with a little additional power, 10 or 12 inches deep. All that it has to contend against seems to be only its own weight, and the traction necessary for the ploughs in their digging work. To argue upon the premises that its indurating effect is on a similar basis to an ordinary traction engine without these india-rubber tires, is only showing an imperfect acquaintance with, or an inconceivable opposition to a powerful agent for accelerating not only culitvation but general farm work. Running, as it does, wholly on the unploughed land, and leaving only the mark, as an eminent engineer puts it, of an ordinary garden roller behind it, the land is not consolidated to be injuriously affected, and the stirring process of the ploughs behind is quite as uniform in body or bulk, and quite as regular over the surface, as the best efforts of ordinar-y steam ploughing. True, there have been no lengthened trials as to its capacity for taking tho

field as a traction power to any cultivator ; but with the evidence before us of what might be called tho versatility of its powers, where obstacles intervened that soemed almost insurmountable, we are justified in directing the attention of agriculturists towards it. But what additionally recommends it to our notice is, that it can be rendered about the handiest agent conceivablo on a farm for any kind of traction work. Indeed, by that standard, and that alone, it would soon recoup first cost in economising the use, and consequently saving tho keep of the horses. To farmers of capital, who farm their hundreds of acres, the consideration of employing an agent of this kind must take a practical from in the course of time. It may not supersede either Messrs Fowler or Howard's cultivators, but depend upon it, it will prove a dangerous rival. The tear and wear of tackling, either direct or roundabout, is an important item of annual expenditure ; and then the time occupied in shifting and laying down tackle may be reckoned at one day per week. If all this can be reduced to a minimum, if the number of hands necessary for general steam work can be lessened, and the engine run home to coal and to water, and do all other things as expeditiously as a team of horses, to say the least of it, its importance upon the future of agricultural prosperity, hi having a tendency to increase production, while it minimises cost, can scarcely be overestimated.