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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



produced, may, it is true, merely meau the same 

 thing as the well-knowu almost universal agricultural 

 remark, that where the soil is in a condition to pro- 

 duce luxuriant weeds^ that there other and better 

 plants may be made to grow with equal success. It 

 probably may meau merely this : but this well-known 

 fact may be capable of other explanations. Does 

 the couch plant only collect together the phosphate 

 of lime already existing in the soil ? Would a por- 

 tion of a field kept fallow and perfectly free from 

 weeds for a given period, produce as good a crop of 

 turnips as another portion of the same field in which 

 the couch was allowed to grow, and was then col- 

 lected, reduced to ashes, and the ashes spread over 

 the soil, thus also well cleansed for the root crop ? 

 It is probable that by either mode of preparing the 

 soil about the same results would be obtained ; but 

 it might happen that the couch plant would be 

 found to collect the phosphate of lime with more 

 energy or from greater depths than in the case of 

 the ordinary cultivated plants. I opine that we 

 shall hereafter have our knowledge of the source 

 whence plants derive their food considerably modi- 

 fied and extended. 



The valuable paper of Professor Voelcker, to which 

 I have been thus alluding, is chiefly directed to the 

 elucidation of the old farming process of paring and 

 burning— a practice which certainly needs a much 



clearer chemical explanation than it has yet received. 

 It is an operation but ill- adapted to light soils; while 

 on many clays the' application of fire is not only 

 attended with benefit to foul and long-neglected 

 soils, but is, in some considerable districts, repeated 

 over and over again, at but moderate intervals of 

 time, with almost continued advantage. 



In this research, the labours of the eminent che- 

 mist, whose researches I have been tracing, are im- 

 portant, and will probably tend to the extension, on 

 suitable soils, of paring and burning. Some of the 

 conclusions to which he arrives, it is true, may 

 hardly be admitted as decisive; but, after these 

 drawbacks, I would commend his report to the far- 

 mer's careful study. He concludes that by paring 

 and burning, 1st, The inert vegetable matter of the 

 soil is made to yield valuable mineral food for 

 plants ; 2nd, That the mechanical condition of the 

 soil is improved; 3rd, That the process is not 

 advantageous for light soils. 



The cautious way, however, in which the Profes- 

 sor addresses himself to the subject, is well worthy 

 of the farmer's careful imitation. The soils for 

 which that antiquated process is most desirable, are 

 certainly not very numerous ; and it is perhaps more 

 than probable that the further our knowledge of 

 weeds and soils is increased, the less occasion shall 

 we find for the employment of paring and burning. 



THE STEAM PLOUGH. 



Mr. J. Algernon Clarke read a paper under this 

 title, at the customary weekly meeting of the 

 Society of Arts on Wednesday, February loth, 

 W. Fairbairn, Esq., in the chair. Mr. Clarke's 

 Essay was written and forwarded early in 1857, in 

 answer to an invitation from the Council for an 

 article on such a subject The medal of the 

 Society was subsequently awarded its author; but 

 he was not called upon to read it until something 

 like a year after it was composed. There were 

 very few practical agriculturists present, but nearly 

 all those gentlemen now directly interested in the 

 further development of steam-power to such a pur- 

 pose. These included Messrs. J. Allen Ransome, 

 John Fowler, Smith, of Woolston, J. Howard, of 

 Bedford, Boydell, Romaine, and Halkett. There 

 were also present Messrs. J. J. Mechi, W. Fisher 

 Hobbs, W. Bullock Webster, J. C. Morton, H. 

 Corbet, Bethell, and T. Scott. Mr. Clarke pro- 

 ceeded as follows : — 



Steam-power having been successfully applied to what 

 may be called the mill-work of the farm, such as thrash- 

 ing, cutting, slicing, grinding, pulping, and preparing 

 the various products and " feeding stuffs," entering in- 

 to the economy of the farmyard, I take the present sub- 

 ject to be confined to operations in the field ; including 

 drainage, preparatory tillage of all kinds, sowing, weed- 

 ing, reaping, cartage of produce to suitable storing 

 places, and the distribution of manure. And, lest a 

 paper on these topics should extend to an unmanageable 

 length, it will be advisable to be still more restricted, so 

 that, waiving for the present a consideration of draining, 

 manuring, sowing, and the light after-processes of til- 

 lage, I come to the first operation of breaking up the 



soil, and the ' mechanical preparation of a seed-bed, as 

 the main objects to be accomplished in steam cultiva- 

 tion. 



Mr. Hoskyns, whose original views of this subject 

 have moulded the designs of many inventors, and first 

 fully awakened the agricultural world to the importance 

 of steam-culture, teaches us to look beyond our familiar 

 digging, ploughing, harrowing, scufBing, and rolling, as 

 the sole possible modes in which the new motive-power 

 may operate. We should analyze these processes ; see 

 what is the end attained by them, and then endeavour to 

 accomplish the desired result with a machine as spe- 

 cially adapted to steam-power, as the present borse and 

 hand implements are to animal-power. Investigating 

 the nature of preparatory tillage, he finds it to consist 

 in " comminution, aeration, and inversion," which it is 

 possible to effect at once, in a single act, and with a 

 simply-formed tilling instrument ; and from the fact of 

 horse-traction being horizontal, manual delving vertical, 

 and the " favourite motion" of machine-work circular, 

 he concludes (with an amount of argument arid illustra- 

 tion which establishes and fortifies his deductions) that 

 some kind of " revolving cultivator" will ultimately be 

 found best for being driven by a steam-engine. Accord- 

 ingly, I am prepared to offer what, I believe, to be a 

 new principle of rotary digging by steam-power, calcu- 

 lated to fulfil the various conditions recommended by 

 theory or demanded by practice ; but as an essay solely 

 on mechanical tillage, so far advanced and a-head of the 

 times, would be of little more immediate practical value 

 than a history of past attempts and failure, I will first 

 consider the application of steam-power to our existing 

 order of implements. 



In the outset let me remark that, although the " fa- 

 vourite motion" of steam machinery is cicular, this is 

 no valid reason why we should reject without trial every 



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