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-perform-
ance 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
ment 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. Galloway 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. Galloway 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