THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



195 



expressed an opiaion iu favour of traction by means of sta- 

 tionary engines. His attention had been principally directed 

 to the latter systeiu, from tlie belief he entertained that the 

 beat practical results wonld be derived trora it. Looking 

 at the results of Fowler's method of steam-ploughiner, it 

 had up to the present time been found very effective. This 

 was shown by the fact of a twelve-horse engine working 

 five ploughs during the week, at the rate of an acre per 

 hour. To accomplish the same work with horse-power, 

 would take sixteen horses. The number of men in the one 

 case was five, and in the other eight. In the one case they 

 must be all skilled ploughmen ; whilst in the other they re- 

 quired only one person competent to drive an engine, an- 

 other able to guide the ploughs, and the remainder could 

 be done by boys. It was further to be remarked that, 

 during the necessary perind of rest and feeding both for 

 men and horses, the steam engine niisiht be employed in 

 ,^ther operations on the farm. He would now speak of an- 

 ot. or class of implements. The plough was universally 

 adm.'ted to be inferior to the sp«de. Why was that so? 

 There .-nist be some detrimental effects produced in plough- 

 ing whicV must be set against the good done to the land. 

 In the firs., place, there was the treading of the horses' 

 feet; and, in the next place, the hardening of the soil by 

 the action of tht broad bottom of the plough. He regarded 

 the implement which had a tendency to break up and com- 

 minute the soil as the nearest approach to perfection ; and 

 where the steam plough had been introduced, with the 

 avoidance of friction, and where the soil was broken up by 

 an implement following in the wake of the plough, he be- 

 lieved it was quite equal to the process of digging ; and he 

 thought this might be effected by the traction rope and 

 fixed engine. At the same time, he thought that a lighter 

 description of engine m:ght be adopted, which could be 

 used as a rotary travelling engine. But, whilst there was 

 work sufficient for each manufacturer in his individual line, 

 he thought ploughing by traction had been almost brought 

 to perfection ; but, with regard to a thoroughly practical 

 digging machine, he feared that the probability ot 

 success was rather remote. The necessary com- 

 plication of such a machine would stand in the way 

 of its success. He lamented as much as any one that the 

 state of his friend Mr. Garrett's health had delayed his 

 further progress in that direction, but his friends might 

 console themselves that he had thus been released from a 

 matter which would certainly have occasioned him a great 

 deal of auxiety ; and in the event of Mr. Garrett's restora- 

 tion to health, he (Mr. Ransome) would advise him not to 

 expend his energies upon the invention of a digging imple- 

 ment to be worked by steam. 



Mr. J. J. Mechi mentioned, as a proof that Fowler's 

 method of ploughing was coming largely into use, that a 

 contract was taken for ploughing 200 acres by this plan on 

 a farm in Essex. This showed that it was in large 

 practical operation, and he had no doubt that it would 

 answer. 



Mr. Newton, although not a practical agriculturist, 

 would venture to differ from some of the views expressed by 

 Mr. Ransome. He did not think ploughing — taking the 

 plough in the form in which thej' were acquainted with it- 

 could be beneficiall}' carried out to any great extent in this 

 country by means of traction power. Whether the imple- 

 ment was capable of modification, so as to obviate the hard 

 under surface occasioned by the sole of the plough, he could 

 not say. Every agriculturist would admit that ploughing 

 was not so beneficial an operation in the preparation of the 

 land as hand labour with the spade, but this was so expen- 

 sive as to be out of the question. He thought the applica- 

 tion of traction by ropes to the plough involved great waste 

 of power, and the friction of the rope on the ground occa- 

 sioneJ an amount of wear and tear which formed a serious 

 item of expense. Nor was that the only objection to 

 ploughing by steam under the method adopted by Mr. 

 Fowler. There must be great waste of time, especially 

 in small fields of six or seven acres, in arranging the 

 anchors and windlass, and also in the lateral shifting 

 on the headland. It was stated in the paper in some in- 

 stances to occupy 2.5 per cent, of time throughout the 

 whole of the day.. That formed a serious item. If they 

 had large fields, such as were seen on the continent, the case 

 might be different, and in fields of 100 or 150 acres Mr. Fow- 



ler's plan could probably be carried out with advantage. They 

 must, however, take the case as it stood in this country. They 

 could not remodel estates. 



Mr. Meciii said this must be done. 



Mr. Newton very much questioued whether the landlords 

 as a body would allow their tenants to grub up the hedges, 

 and cut down the trees, to form open lands ou their farms. 

 RefereiR-e h;\d been made to Romaine's cultivator. That ma- 

 chine could be taken to any field where the gateway was wide 

 enough to admit it, and every foot of the land could be culti- 

 vated by it, without any further operation being required ; be- 

 sides which, it was capable of beiog adapted to all the purposes 

 for which the portable steani-eugiue was employed upon a 

 farm. The cost of that machine was stated iu the paper to be 

 £700. It ought, however, to be borne in mind, that an imple- 

 ment of that kind dispensed with a considerable amount of 

 horse- power. He believed it was not generally known that the 

 horse-power fur agricullural purposes in this country con- 

 sumed from one-fifth to one-sixth of the whole produce of the 

 land. 



Mr. Mechi said, on small and moderately cultivated farms 

 it would amount to one-fourth. On well-cultivated lands it 

 would be about one-fifth. 



Mr. Newton added that such an item in the expenditure 

 on a farm was very serious. He repeated his belief that the 

 system introduced by Romaine would ultimately be found to 

 be most successful in the cultivation of the laud, from the fact 

 that all the necessary operations were effected at once. 



Mr. Mechi wished to explain, that in stating the consump- 

 tion of ths horses on a farm to be, in some cases, one-fourth of 

 the produce, he did not mean one-fourth in value, as of course 

 horses were not fed upon wheat, but the produce arising from 

 one-fourth of the extent of the farm. 



Mr. John Fowlek, had listened with great interest to 

 the able paper of Mr. Clarke, which he regarded as a most 

 excellent resume of what had been effected in steam culture 

 up to the present period, and an extremely fair criticism 

 upon the merits of each invention. With reference to the 

 remarks of Mr. Newton, although he agreed with him in 

 the belief that rotary cultivation in some shape or other 

 would be ultimately brought to bear, yet they could hardly 

 assume that it would do all that was required. It was pos- 

 sible that rotary cultivation might effect the overturning 

 of the soil, and he believed there was no very great diffi- 

 culty in bringing it to bear for that purpose on level and 

 firm soil', but upon very uneven surfaces the power ex- 

 pended in taking the machine over them must be very great. 

 Of course there were many improvements in detail which 

 might be made in such a machine ; and he should be glad 

 to see the gentlemen-agriculturists of England, for it was 

 not the place of the tenant farmers to do it, appropriating a 

 small portion of the income which they derived from the 

 land to experiments in rotary cultivation. With regard to 

 himself, he ventured to say that the system of ploughing he 

 had introduced was a step in the right direction. He 

 thought there could be no question that it was a really 

 practical plan, inasmuch as it performed the ploughing at 

 half the cost of horse-power, and the work was better done. 

 He was happy to have the testimony of Mr. Mechi in its 

 favour, though it was by no means the first he had had. 

 Seven acres of sandy soil, in the neighbourhood of Ipswich, 

 had been ploughed by steam, and the result was, even on 

 land which had no rich subsoil to be turned up, that a 

 yield of a quarter per acie more in the crop was ob- 

 tained. The people in the neighbourhood suggested 

 that the difference arose from the depth of the til- 

 lage having prevented the drought from attacking the 

 wheat. He admitted the superiority of hand-spade cul- 

 tivation over even steam ploughing, but it was too expensive 

 in practice, and he was prepared to say that, ou heavy clay 

 land, steam cultivation, equal to spade labour, could be done 

 for 12s. an acre. With regard to the wear and tear of the rope 

 under his system, a misapprehension existed. Upon clay land 

 he would guarantee the wear of the rope at sixpence per acre ; 

 he believed it would not exceed threepence per acre ; but if the 

 work was done upon gravelly soil abounding with sharp flint 

 stones, greater care was necessary with regard to the rope, 

 although in such cases be believed the expense would not be 

 greater ; but if farmers used the rope iu the careless maun e 

 they frequently did their steam engines, of course they must 

 be content to bear the expense of theii negligence. Judging 



