Steam-digger.

Steam-digger. The successful application of steam to the 'digging' of the soil can hardly be said to date further back than 1880. In that year at the Royal English Show at Carlisle Messrs M'Laren of Leeds exhibited the Darby Digger, for which they received the society's special silver medal. This digger was the invention of Mr T. C. Darby of Pleshey Lodge, Chelmsford, a gentleman-farmer, who expended large sums of money and much anxious labour upon the perfecting of this most useful implement. The problem of steam-digging was now successfully solved, and it is surprising that the system has not been more largely adopted. The action of the digger in the soil is quite different from that of the plough. It is much more beneficial to the soil from almost all points of view. Not only is there a saving in power, but the quality of the work done is far superior to that accomplished by the plough. The steam-digger indeed imitates closely digging by hand, and hand-digging is the most perfect of all methods of tillage. By the process of digging the soil is much more thoroughly pulverised than by ploughing. The digging-forks of the steam-digger tear up the soil and toss it over in forkfuls in a manner which leaves both the subsoil and surface-soil more open than is the case in ploughing. The action of the plough in cutting the furrow from the subsoil tends to the formation of a 'pan' on the top of the subsoil. The digger 'tears' instead of 'cuts' the surface-soil from the subsoil, and this tearing action tends to loosen the latter. Most farmers who have tried both steam-ploughing and steam-digging much prefer the latter, not only because they believe that from digging the crops are better and the weeds fewer, but also because the digging appliances are much more simple, and involve less cost for tear and wear, and for attention in working, than the steam-ploughing gear. The curious circumstance that fewer weeds grow up on land turned over by the steam-digger than on ploughed land is attributed to the fact that, while the digging-forks tear deep-rooted weeds out of the subsoil and toss them on the surface, where they are killed by exposure, the plough merely cuts the long roots in two, leaving one portion to send forth a new crop of weeds. The Darby digger consists of a steam-engine with working parts similar to those of an ordinary traction-engine fixed on the top of a double locomotive boiler. The power is communicated by steel spur gearing to a long horizontal shaft running parallel with the centre line of the boiler. Thence it is transmitted to the digging-cranes by wheels and pinions of cast steel. There are six digging forks, each about 42 inches wide, so that the digger turns over a breadth of about 21 feet at a time. The digging-forks can be set to work at various depths, down to about 14 inches. Whilst digging the digger travels sideways, and has thus been designated the 'broad-side' digger. For travelling on the road the travelling wheels can be turned so that it moves like an ordinary traction-engine. When digging it travels at the rate of about half a mile per hour, and allowing for turning and stoppages digs over an acre per hour. The cost of this digger with an 8 horse-power engine is £1200, and its inventor claims that it will dig ten acres per day at a net cost of nine shillings per acre, including men's wages, coal, interest on capital and depreciation. The digger invented by Mr Frank Proctor, of Stevenage, consists of an ordinary traction-engine geared into a crank shaft, which works three forks in the rear, so that as the engine travels forward in the usual manner the ground is left dug up behind. These forks can be thrown out of gear or hinged up to permit of the engine being used for threshing or other purposes. This system is comparatively cheap, simple, and effective. An 8 horse-power digger costs £300, and in a day of ten hours should dig ten acres, consuming about 11 cwt. of coal, and requiring the attendance of two men.