The stump-jump plough, also known as stump-jumping plough, is a kind of plough invented in South Australia by Richard Bowyer Smith and Clarence Herbert Smith to solve the particular problem of preparing mallee lands for cultivation.
The stump-jump plough, also known as stump-jumping plough, is a kind of plough invented in South Australia by Richard Bowyer Smith and Clarence Herbert Smith to solve the particular problem of preparing mallee lands for cultivation.
Mallee scrub originally covered large parts of southern Australia, and because of its growth habit, the trees were difficult to remove completely, because the tree would shoot again after burning, cutting down or other kinds of damage. The large roots, known as lignotubers, remained in the ground, [1] making it very difficult to plough the soil. [2]
In South Australia, crown land was offered under the Scrub Lands Act 1866 to farmers on lease, with the option of purchasing after 21 years at the price of £1 per acre. [3] [4] The "Strangways Act" followed in 1869, which allowed crown land to be bought on credit, with encouragement to clear the land of scrub for the purpose of more intensive agriculture such as growing grain crops and mixed farming. [5] Closer settlement made it even tougher for farmers to make a living. [3]
Grubbing the mallee lands was laborious and expensive £2–7 per acre, [6] and the government offered a £200 reward for the invention of an effective machine that would remove the stumps. [2]
The invention of the scrub roller, or mallee roller, was one solution. This was a heavy roller which was dragged over roughly cleared ground by horses or bullocks, crushing small trees, undergrowth and new shoots. After leaving the field to dry, the flattened vegetation was burnt. This process was known as mullenising, [7] as the invention of the device was attributed to an Irish-born farmer from Wasleys called Charles Mullen. [8] Mullen devised a contraption which included a heavy roller dragged behind a pair of logs fixed together to create a V-shape. A team of horses pulled the device at the pointed end of the V, [9] dragging the roller behind it over a field covered in stumps. [10] There is a memorial commemorating Mullen's invention at Wasleys, which describes the mullenising process slightly differently: "With Mullenising a forked log with spikes was used to cultivate the ground between the stumps, bringing the land into production much earlier than previous methods. The original forked log worked around the stumps...". [9]
The fields could then be sown after running a spiked log across the ground, [7] but the scrub roller still left the mallee stumps in the ground, making ploughing difficult, and the process had to be repeated each year [8] until the mallee died, although the stumps remained. The method continued to be used into the early 20th century. [7]
In June 1876 a special plough was invented by agricultural machinery apprentice Richard Bowyer Smith, and later developed and perfected by his brother, Clarence Herbert Smith, [11] on the Yorke Peninsula (where the problem was particularly acute). The plough consisted of any number [12] of hinged or pivoting ploughshares or blades (originally three), which worked independently of each other: [13] when the blade encountered an underground obstacle like a mallee stump, it would rise out of the ground. Attached weights forced the blade back into the ground after the root was passed, allowing as much of the ground to be furrowed as possible. Although a little unorthodox, the plough in action appearing "like a ship in a storm", [12] it proved remarkably effective, and was dubbed the "stump-jump" plough (also spelt without the hyphen). [13]
The first plough produced by Richard Smith was a three-furrow plough he called the "Vixen". [14] [15] Later that same year, Richard Smith demonstrated a single-furrow stump-jump plough which included a chain that dragged the bottom of the ploughshare back into the ground, known as the "bridle draught". This device was further enhanced by W. H. May [16] of Wallaroo and William Heithersay of Peterborough and became a regular feature of stump-jump ploughs. [13]
Richard Smith's invention earned him a first prize at the Moonta Show in 1876 when he exhibited a prototype, and was later regarded as one of the most important agricultural inventions of the century. It became used throughout the British Commonwealth, and completely changed agricultural practices where it was adopted, as it allowed crops to be grown without removing stumps and rocks, thus saving a lot of work and time. Unfortunately, Richard was only able to afford temporary registration of his invention, and others (including his brother Clarence, who had been an early sceptic) started making their own versions and earning profits on them. [17] [18]
Another successful stump-jump plough was invented in 1877 by James Winchester Stott (1830–1907), who was a very prolific inventor (also inventing a cultivator, slasher, scarifier and double furrow plough), in Alma in the mid North of South Australia. [19] Stott and Mellor Brothers, who had refined Stott's design, were jointly the first to patent a stump-jumping plough in Victoria. [20]
The invention was hailed as a "complete revolution" [12] and, in combination with the process of mullenising, was adopted almost universally across the mallee lands, even proving as useful in stony ground as it was in mallee country. [21]
Albert Arnold (born in 1856 at Gawler, SA) reportedly improved on the design of the plough while doing his apprenticeship and working as a farmer in South Australia before moving to Sydney in 1882. While working for Joyner and Son, he made a stump-jump plough and was the first to introduce the invention in New South Wales. [13]
Richard Smith's claim to be the inventor of the plough was contested unsuccessfully by Stott and Charles Branson, and the South Australian government, after a thorough investigation into the matter, awarded £500 to Smith in 1882. [14] They also gave him a gold medal and a parcel of 260 hectares (640 acres) of land near Ardrossan, but he packed up and moved to Western Australia in 1884, leaving Clarence to continue the business at Ardrossan. Clarence died in 1901 and his sons took over, running the business for about 30 years. A 1907 newspaper article commented that their factory was "one of the largest and best equipped of its kind in the Commonwealth". [15]
There are two stump-jump ploughs on display at Ardrossan, a significant port town on the Yorke Peninsula. One is on top of the cliff at the eastern end of First Street. There is another in the Ardrossan Museum. [22] The outdoor plough was fully restored and mounted outdoors in 1972, with a plaque commemorating Smith's invention donated by the local Lions Club. [23] The one in the museum was added to the Engineering Heritage Register in 1987. [21]
Albert Arnold donated his double-furrow stump-jump plough, made in 1882–3, to the Technological Museum (now Powerhouse Museum, part of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences) in Sydney, in 1926. It is still on display. [13]
A plough or (US) plow is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden, iron or steel frame with a blade attached to cut and loosen the soil. It has been fundamental to farming for most of history. The earliest ploughs had no wheels; such a plough was known to the Romans as an aratrum. Celtic peoples first came to use wheeled ploughs in the Roman era.
In agriculture, a harrow is a farm implement used for surface tillage. It is used after ploughing for breaking up and smoothing out the surface of the soil. The purpose of harrowing is to break up clods and to provide a soil structure, called tilth, that is suitable for planting seeds. Coarser harrowing may also be used to remove weeds and to cover seed after sowing.
The Yorke Peninsula, known as Guuranda by the original inhabitants, the Narungga people, is a peninsula located northwest and west of Adelaide in South Australia, between Spencer Gulf on the west and Gulf St Vincent on the east. The peninsula is separated from Kangaroo Island to the south by Investigator Strait.
Ardrossan is a town in the Australian state of South Australia located on the eastern coast of the Yorke Peninsula, about 150 kilometres (93 mi) by road from the Adelaide city centre. It is notable for its deepwater shipping port and its towering coastal cliffs of red clay.
Dunlop is a suburb of the Belconnen district of Canberra, located within the Australian Capital Territory, Australia. Dunlop is at the far north-west edge of Canberra, near the border with the state of New South Wales. Approximately 11.6 kilometres (7.2 mi) north-west of the city, Dunlop is next to the suburbs of Fraser, Charnwood and Macgregor. At the edge and within Dunlop lies the Canberra Nature Park called Dunlop Grasslands Nature Reserve, West Belconnen Ponds, Jarramlee Pond and Fassifern Pond which are part of the Ginninderra Catchment.
Moonta is a town on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, 165 km (103 mi) north-northwest of the state capital of Adelaide. It is one of three towns known as the Copper Coast or "Little Cornwall" for their shared copper mining history.
Wasleys is a small town north-west of Gawler, South Australia. Roseworthy College is located around 6 km (3.7 mi) south of the town.
Mallee are trees or shrubs, mainly certain species of eucalypts, which grow with multiple stems springing from an underground lignotuber, usually to a height of no more than 10 m (33 ft). The term is widely used for trees with this growth habit across southern Australia, in the states of Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, and has given rise to other uses of the term, including the ecosystems where such trees predominate, specific geographic areas within some of the states and as part of various species' names.
Copper Coast is a region of South Australia situated in Northern Yorke Peninsula and comprising the towns of Wallaroo, Kadina, Moonta, Paskeville and Port Hughes. The area approximately bounded by Wallaroo, Kadina and Moonta is also known as the Copper Triangle. The area is so named because copper was mined from there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a significant source of economic prosperity for South Australia at the time. These three towns are known for their large Cornish ethnicity, often called "Little Cornwall". Kernewek Lowender is the world's largest Cornish Festival, held biennially in the Cornish Triangle. The area continues to make a significant contribution to the economy of South Australia, as a major producer of grain, particularly barley and wheat.
Clarence Herbert Smith was an Australian agriculturalist, engineer, blacksmith and inventor.
Richard Bowyer Smith was an Australian inventor.
Clinton is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on the east coast of Yorke Peninsula overlooking the north west head of Gulf St Vincent about 101 kilometres (63 mi) west of the state capital of Adelaide and about 36 kilometres (22 mi) north-east of the municipal seat of Maitland.
Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands is one of 32 Major Vegetation Groups defined by the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy and one of the 189 habitats in the HOTW habitats of the World classification.
Alford is a settlement in South Australia. Alford is in the Hundred of Tickera, northern Yorke Peninsula, about midway between the towns of Kadina and Port Broughton. The natural landform is undulating fertile plains, which often feature limestone and dunes. Founded on the agricultural industry, which surrounds the township, most of the original mallee scrub vegetation has been cleared for highly productive broad-acre wheat and barley farming, plus grazing and mixed farming.
The Eyre Yorke Block, also known as the Eyre and Yorke mallee, is an interim Australian (IBRA) bioregion and a World Wildlife Fund ecoregion covering part of the Eyre Peninsula and all of Yorke Peninsula as well as land to its immediate east in South Australia.
The Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society of South Australia was founded in November 1839 as the South Australian Agricultural Society with the aim of promoting primary industries in the Colony. The Society and its functions were patterned on similar organisations in England, and in its successive incarnations, the organisation has continued to pursue this aim to the current day.
J. & D. Shearer was an engineering and farm machinery manufacturer based in Mannum between 1882 and 1912, founded by John (1845–1932) and David Shearer (1850–1936), and continued separately as John Shearer & Sons of Kilkenny, South Australia, and David Shearer & Co. of Mannum.
Agery is a locality in the Australian state of South Australia located on Yorke Peninsula. It is situated 17 km south-east of Moonta. Its name comes from the Aboriginal word ngadjali meaning "pipe clay".
The Strangways Land Act, Strangways Act or Waste Lands Amendment Act, were common names for legislation enacted in January 1869 in the colony of South Australia, formally titled An Act to further amend the "Waste Lands Act" 1869. The Act enabled the purchase of land for farmers, allowing for closer settlement in areas of the province suited to more intensive agriculture, rather than vast pastoral runs on uncleared land leased from the government. It is named for Henry Strangways, who was premier and attorney-general when the legislation was passed, and had previously been the Minister for Crown Lands.
Cunningham is a locality on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. It lies on the road between Ardrossan and Maitland.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Tomorrow's World, The Australian Initiative was one of the first books to be published in full and provided free of charge on the world wide web in 1995.
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