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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



is evidently well up in mechanics, will perhaps 

 form a different opinion of my ploughs when 

 I tell him that, by their construction, they are 

 capable of being altered in five minutes from a four- 

 furrow or six-furrow plough to a ridge plough, by simply 

 taking off the first, third, and fifth plough-bodies, and 

 substituting a large steel broadshare in their stead. The 

 work is then performed as follows : The first beam, 

 carrying a broadshare, cuts and breaks up the soil, but 

 does not turn it ; the second beam, a plough, cuts its 

 own ground, and turns it on the top of the other; the 

 others alternately acting the same, throwing the whole 

 into ridges or rafters, and the whole of it being broken 

 up, it lies adcirably for exposure to the atmosphere and 

 the frost. Several farmers in Staffordshire told me, on 

 seeing it work, "they should like all their land done 

 like it." 



I ought to apologise, Mr. Editor, for the length of my 

 letter ; but I know that anything relating to steam cul- 

 ture finds a ready place in your columns. And as on a 



past occasion, when a long controversy as to " Who in- 

 vented the Steam Plough?" took place in your journal, 

 I took no part therein, feeling convinced that — having 

 proposed and introduced the subject of " Steam Culti- 

 vation" at the London Farmers' Club, previous to either 

 of the disputants taking any part in it, and the publicity 

 that was given to that discussion through your paper and 

 several others, besides the Journal of the Club — that the 

 public would give me credit for being first in the matter. 

 However, it appears that " A Plain Farmer" was not 

 aware of the fact, and possibly many more like him ; I 

 therefore consider it a duty I owe to myself to put this 

 matter straight, as I am not only the inventor of the haul- 

 ing machine, but it will be found that, ultimately, when 

 brought to perfection, my systemof moving ahead op- 

 posite the work will be the best. 



I remain, Mr. Editor, yours faithfully, 



J. A. Williams. 

 Baydon, Wilis, Nov. 24, 1857. 



THE PROPER POSITION OF THE LABOURING MAN. 



Hefiections arising out of the Rev. C. T. James's 

 eloquent address and the afternoon discussion on 

 labourers' education we have already offered to 

 our readers. We shall now give a few more, 

 which, on the contrary, were never likely to occur 

 to anybody from a perusal of wliat passed at the 

 Farmers' Club. Our working- classes, having no news- 

 paper, edited, contributed to, and supported by them- 

 selves, speaking their views and stating their wants 

 and wishes, read what we write for them, and have 

 their case always pleaded by men of a class above 

 them. A journal, therefore, like the Mark-lane. Ex- 

 press, representing all the interests connected with 

 agriculture, whether owning, occupying, orl abouring, 

 should not be frugal of its devotion to the cause of the 

 ■workman, while giving due regard to the rights and 

 duties of the landlord and tenant-farmer. The subject 

 of improving the educational condition of the agTieul- 

 tural labourer was or should have been treated, on 

 the above occasion, in its relation to the exigencies of 

 the farmer. We would now extend the topic in a 

 somewhat new direction, bearing upon the welfare of 

 the labourer himself, and through him of the whole 

 community. 



It is certainly worth while to persist in urging upon 

 sluggish and short-sighted farmers that their interests 

 would be advanced by doing a little bit of philanthropy 

 among their work-people ; and there are many igno- 

 rant masters yet left, who cannot perceive any good in 

 making their men more thoughtful as well as more 

 handy than t)iey now are. But our intelligent men of 

 business admit all you can plead on behalf of more 

 extended education (that is, of mental, moral, and 

 bodily training), and deplore with you that the thing 

 remains so scantily and insignificantly done. Shrewd 

 and calculating, as well as right-minded and benevolent 

 men, agree that it would be better for all classes if 

 labourers could have higher wages, earned more at piece- 

 work than by the day, and were paid perhaps partly 

 in bread-corn or barley for home-brewing. If their 

 homes were more decent and comfortable ; if they 

 universally had rood-pieces for potatoes, grain, and 

 garden vegetables (not omitting floral beauties by 

 cottage-doors and windows), and did they all possess, 

 if not the poor-man's Elysian blessedness of a milk- 

 giving cow agisted by the master, at any rate a sleek 

 economizing pig or two in the manure-making sty. 



You may add also every variety of sick-club, ooal- 

 club, savings-banks, &c., for providence and mutual 

 help, and crown the list with evening-classes for adults, 

 and time and opportunity for good training for their 

 families, with, perhaps, athletic games and rural fes- 

 tivals in which all classes may cheerily mingle. 



Still further, every one whose views are worthy of re- 

 spect acknowledge that farmers are greatly to blame for 

 their remissness in many of these matters ; that clergy- 

 men, and squires, and people of influence and power are 

 accusable of great neglect in some points ; and that 

 landowners and proprietors are impeachable with re- 

 ference to others. Then again, the good ladies, who, 

 like improvised Sisters of Mercy, parcel out " their 

 poor" into visiting districts, tell us that personal im- 

 providence and recklessness in the men, and a want of 

 ability for cooking, soup-making, and working-up of 

 domestic odds-and-ends in the wives, mothers, and 

 daughters, are sufficient to account for much of the 

 labourers' poverty. Even beyond these, there is the tee- 

 totaller charging the brewers and publicans with being 

 at the bottom of more than half the mischief and misery. 

 It is a matter for general congratulation that we at last 

 know and admit these things, and that we treat the 

 labourers' case in a better spirit than we did. At an 

 agricultural meeting, when the hard-handed, hard- 

 headed fellows come up into the dining-hall to receive 

 the golden honours for prize ploughing, and the careful 

 old servant, housemaid, and the diligent scholar, or 

 clever little needlewoman from the parish school, 

 share in the distribution of rewards, the benevolent 

 vicar or his indefatigable curate makes a fatherly ad- 

 dress to this elite of the working-classes, fairly and 

 good-liumouredly adverting to the above-mentioned 

 grievances — generally concluding, by-the-bye, with 

 an earnest appeal against tobacco and the beer-shop, 

 just as the health of the labourer is being drunk 

 by their masters with " three times three." On 

 greater occasions, too, our noble lords and right 

 honom-ables, as well as plain agriculturists, in dilating 

 upon the " opei'ative" question, invariably enforce 

 the principle that the men who slave for the community, 

 for capitalists and gentry, have a right to receive 

 education and assistance from the classes above them ; 

 and that it is the bounden duty of all, above the position 

 of being drudges of society, to help their toiling brothers 

 in proportion to the measure of their own affluence and 



