THE PROGRESS OF STEAM CULTIVATION.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1296, 19 October 1880, Page 3

THE PROGRESS OF STEAM CULTIVATION.

A new era appears to be opening in the history of steam cultivation. As the first steam "plough was the novelty at the Royal Agricultural Society's Carlisle Meeting in 1855, so at the Carlisle Show of 1880, which commenced on Saturday, the great mechanical feat is steam digging. The advent of the steam-digger is of value for redirecting attention to the promise which liesin steam husbandry. A new departure is taken ; another competing system enters the field In addition to the steam plough hauled by wire rope, the public have now before them the steam digger — either attached behind an engine travelling upon the land, or driven by a light flying rope from the engine stationed at a distance. One new invention which is to come before the judges at Carlisle is the digging engine patented by Mr T. C. Darby, of Pleshy Lodge, near Chelmsford ; and on the same occasion we may expect to see the flyinjr rope digging machine invented by Mr J. H. Knight, of Wey borne, near Farnham. Haying been present at a field trial of the Dartty Engine, we (Times) can describe in a few words what it is like, and what measure of success appears in its performauce. The whole of tho details of construction have been thoroughly well ' worked out for strength, with lightness by the makers, Messrs J. ,and H. M'L.ircn, of the Midland Engine Works, Leeds. The "principle " of the machine is as follows—applying the motivo power at the point where the work is, involving the employment of an engine travelling upon tho land with the tilling apparatus following ; effecting the cultivation by direct-acting tines or blades, instead of by the wedge-and-twist action of the ploughshare and mouldboard ; utilising the thrust of the tools in a backward directien to aid the propulsion of the engine forward ; and taking a great breadth at once with a slow rate of advance, in order to transport the engine over the ground as seldom as possible in proportion to the area of work done. Three huge forks suspended from a crankshaft mounted behind the boiler operate upon a breadth of 20ft at once, these forks j measuring over 6jft apiece in width, and successively striking the grouuel after the manner of a three-throw pump. Each fork rises and falls Ift, and is canted backward a distance of 2ft, the s»d or slice dug off from the whole ground being deposited at the back of an open trench or furrcw and turned over, so that the face of stubble or sward rests against the back of tho preceding slice. The process has been described as ploughing so many sections of furrow about 7ft long, by cutting and turning them over crosswise instead of lengthwise ; the action thus being direct, and the power applied in the plane of movement of the slice, instead of at right angles to the plane of movement as in ploughing. The operation, as we saw it in a stiff, moist soil, is thoroughly effected ; tha slices are severed and lifted, leaving a furrow bottom level; and. instead of the, pieces falling irregularly or exposing herbage on the surface, the inversion is as complete as in ordinary ploughing — with the exception of the edg9, which is the beat ploughing — upon grass or lea, is turned under by employing a skim coulter. The inventor claims that his method of severing and turning over the spit or slice approximately engages the amount of motive power which theory assigns to the work, avoiding the great loss by friotion and cohesion of wet sticky earth upon a ploughshare and mould-board. He claims also that the diggers in penetrating the ground ease the weight of the engine to a considerable extent off the travelling wheels, and also by their back action drive the engine forward.

A Small Couple — Germany can boast of having produced the smallest married couple that ever stood before an altar, in the persona of a miniature "Marquis " and "Marchioness," who have for somo time past been exhibited at the Place dv Theatre at Odessa. The "Marquis," a native of Kiel, is 30 years old, and weighs only 19 pounds, while, his fairy-lik3 consort, a young 1 lady born inNeumunster, fiometwo-and-twenty years ago, just turns the scale at 13 pounds. At a first glance this tiny pair, it is said, miarht be taken for a couple of scarcely weaned babies, dressed up for a joke in the garb of adults but on closer examination the genuiness of their maturity becomes unmistakably apparent. A certain pleasant flavour of romance runs through the story of the circumstances that led to their uuion. Although they are both Germanborn wonders leased by their parents to travelling show-men at an early age, they never happened to meet at the fairs and Kermesson of their native land ; but a year ago, the " Marquis" being on exhibition at Moscow, while Fraulein Lilli was starring at St. Peteiv>tmrg, they became awai'e of one another's existence through reading the newspaper notices of their respective characteristics, and entering into correspondence which soon led to a rendezvous, and ultimately to the contraction of a matrimonial engagement. 1 Now they take their professional rounds together, and are saving up their earnings with the obiect of retiring into private life in the Fatherland. Nuremburg could, donbtleso, supply thorn with the most charming of doll's houses, eminently suited to their minute domestic requirements. The following are the number of paupers (exclustive of luntics in asylums and and vagrants) on the last day of the fol- | lowing weeks:— Third week, of July, i 1880, indoor, 46,081 ; outdoor, 36,880— totil* 82,961 ; third week of July, 1879, indoor, 43,4,33, outdoor, 36,7177— t0ta1, 80,170 ; third week of July, 1878, indoor, .'J8,068; outdoor, 38,502— t0ta1, 76,570; third week of July, 1877, indoor, 32,622; outdoor, 41,gll— total, 76,963. Vagrants relieved in the metropolis on the last day of the third Week of July, 1880 :— Men, 461; women, 170; children under 16, 43 —total, 674.