THE STEAM PLOW WORKS AT LEEDS, ENGLAND

      When the late Mr. John Fowler had brought the steam plow to nearly its present state of perfection, he made arrangements with the firm of Messrs. Kitson & Hewitson, of Leeds, to manufacture it, together with the engines for working it. The business grew so rapidly, however, that an establishment specially devoted to this class of work soon became necessary, and Mr. Fowler and his partners started the present well-known Steam Plow Works, which have at times employed as many as 1,100 men and boys, and which have sent out many, hundred sets of steam-tackle for use in England and abroad. During the American war, when the cotton trade was greatly stimulated in India and in Egypt, the demand for steam-cultivating machinery was very great, and the works under notice sent in all nearly 300 sets of tackle to the last-named country alone. The steam plow has made fair progress at home, but it has not come into use to anything approaching the extent which the best interests of British agriculture require. About 250 sets of Fowler’s tackle are in use, and since the recent important reports upon steam-cultivation, by the committees of the Royal Agricultural Society, a fresh demand has sprung up, and about 100 sets will have been added this year to the number at work.

      We have often expressed our opinion that no field of mechanical engineering has now such a future before it as agricultural engineering; and we may expect to see establishments like the Steam Plow Works greatly increased in extent and number. We are only beginning to comprehend that the soil of England has never been half cultivated, even for that part brought under cultivation. It is only the power of steam that can enable us properly to stir the soil to the full depth reached in the occasional I and fragmentary experiments in spade husbandry; and it is only the power of steam that will effectually and cheaply under-drain wet and retentive soils. Those periodical accesses of prosperity which have attended English trade from the beginning of the present century have always followed the development of some important invention, like steamships, railways, mule-spinning, hot-blast smelting, etc.; and there is no invention which, already stamped with success, but still not fully introduced, affords so wide a prospect of further prosperity as that of steam cultivation. It owes its practical introduction to the late Mr. John Fowler; and although his death was a heavy loss to the cause in which he had labored with so much ingenuity, perseverance, and success, his work is being followed up by his former assistants with an energy and practical ability which leave little to fear for the cause of steam cultivation in the future.

Information Sources

• American Artisan 23 Oct 1867, page 244