By the 1840s British farmers were benefiting from real advances in the technology of ploughs, drills and other implements.
The book which more than any other summed up the position at the time was The Implements of Agriculture, first published in 1843. As a partner in one of the country’s leading engineering companies, J Allen Ransome had a profound practical knowledge of the subject which he supplemented by original research.
Ransome devotes the first section of his book to the plough. He gives a clear, history of current developments, evaluates the claims made on behalf of various designs and looks forward to the time when ‘three or four good standard ploughs for general purposes might be adopted.’
The author goes into considerable detail when he describes thrashers, seed and manure drills, harrows and scarifiers. He covers rollers, horse hoes, rakes, winnowing machines and chaff and turnip cutters, and concludes with a few thoughts about the future uses of steam engines. In his chapter on mills and crushers Ransome includes an abstract of patents. He also adds as an Appendix a long list of other patents for machinery and processes.
This facsimile reprint of the first edition is for all those interested in the history of farm implements in the age of the horse. It includes over a hundred original line engravings, some of which will be familiar from their re-use by later authors.