3-008-684 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Trials of steam-ploughs near Farningham, Kent, 1862. 'Although eleven machines or so were at work from time to time, the systems really on trial were those of Fowler, Howard, Smith, and Coleman. "...we saw Messrs. Howard's machines, and also Mr. Fowler's larger and smaller sets in operation; and certainly both the Leeds and the Bedford ploughs made superb work. The mouldboards of both are formed in imitation of the Kentish ploughs, and nothing can excel the perfection of their complete inversion and crumbling of the slice. Mr. Fowler's digging-breasts did a piece of grand work with the large engine, accomplishing about five acres and a half in five hours, in good strong lea, though not a clayey soil...Messrs. Brown and May, of Devizes, were cultivating the only piece of really heavy land we saw during the trials; their windlass is stationary...Messrs. Coleman's apparatus was drawing two five-tined cultivators, each 4ft. wide - adaptations of the well-known cultivators of this firm, fitted with steerages. A man stands upon each implement; and, after completing a journey, guides the implement backwards into its next course, so that a minimum of time is lost at the ends. No rope-porters were used, as the field presented a concave surface'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.