A NEW SYSTEM OF ELECTRIC PLOUGHING.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXVI, Issue 17552, 23 April 1919, Page 8

A NEW SYSTEM OF ELECTRIC PLOUGHING.

Several methods have been devised for ap'pying electric haulage to ploughs, and tlie latest is a British invention which shows great originality and ingenuity. Tt serves three purposes— ploughing, drainage, and transport. The inventor proposes that overhead tracks shall be erected on A-shaped steel or ferro-concrete frames so as to form parallel lines on opposite sides of the ground to be cultivated. On each track is an electric traveller with a windingdrum which hauls on an endless rope to which ihe plough or oilier implement is attached. By ma.king the implement double-ended it can be hauled backwards and forwards without turning «t the end of each joxirney. Underneath the line of A-shaped frames is constructed tht* main concrete drain; and the digging of mole draifts leading into the mam dtain can be carried out by a draining; machine hauled in the same way as the plough. By extending the system of overhead tracks they may be used to carry materials and produce hefffeen the field and the farm or the main road. Where the ground is undulating the le-'el of the track is preserved by making the supoorts lonsrer or shorter ap required. Although this equipment re.ay seem costly, it is not so in effect, as it include drninnffe and transport j and renders hedges; ditches, and roads { unnecessary. The use of electric power | also cuts out the necessity of carting J fuel or wator for field operations. For intensive cultivation on modern lines this well-thought-out invention should have a most interesting future.