THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



217 



has no less his duty to attend to, in the preparation of 

 the land, so as to aid to the utmost the adaptation of 

 this new power, and the working of the new implement. 

 There is a position held by many now, namely, 

 that culture of the soil by the i)ower of steam, whether 

 this be effected by the plough or by any other machine or 

 implement, must be a process subsequent to another or 

 others, this or those having for its or their object the 

 preparation of the hind so as to aid the cultural opera- 

 tion. If the fields are cramped in dimensions by 

 hedge-rows or ditches, tlie one must be remorselessly 

 pulled down, the other unhesitatingly filled up; If hil- 

 locks or hollows impede the progress of the machine, the 

 redundancy of the one must be cut down to afford mate- 

 rial to fill up the vacancy of the other ; if huge boulders 

 threaten to stop, or, if not to stop, to damage or injure the 

 mechanism of the implement, these, at whatever cost of 

 time and trouble, must be exterminated. Every obsta- 

 cle, in short, must be removed, which can tend to im- 

 pede, and every facility be granted which can tend to 

 aid the progress of the steam-worked cultural imple- 

 ment. We do not say that it will pay to do all this ; 

 this is obviously another consideration which belongs 

 to the province of the farmer himself; but taking sim- 

 ply and solely the mechanical view of the question, 

 there can be little doubt that if the steam-dragged 

 plough, or the steam- impelled cultivator, be expected to 

 do all the work of which it is undoubtedly capable, this 

 previous preparationofthelandmustbegoneinto. There 

 can be no doubt of the truth of this position, whatever 

 doubt there may be as to the paying capabilities of this 

 thorough system of operation. Half work may pay 

 better than whole; but if whole work, which — to be 

 truthful — is the only real work, is ultimately judged the 

 most expedient to be carried out in the cultivation of laud, 

 the whole preparation must also be made. The loco- 

 motive williout the rails would not attain the lightning 

 speed it does, and the rails would be an expensive in- 

 vestment if horse traction was to be used ; the line and 

 the locomotive both, are required to perfect the railway 

 system. So in steam cultivation: there must be a 

 mutual adaptation of the power to the material, and 

 vicj versa. In stating these views, we but echo 

 the opinions of many gifted and far-seeing agricultu- 

 rists and mechanicians ; and we are glad to avail our- 



selves of the opportunity here presented to us, by giv- 

 ing, as closely relating to the point, the opinion of Mr. 

 William Fairbairn, one of the most eminent of our en- 

 gineers ; the remarks were made with special refer- 

 ence to reaping machines ; but they have, as will be 

 seen, a close bearing upon the question which 

 has occupied our attention. " There is, however, 

 another element equally important and essential to the 

 efficiency of the process of reaping, and that is the 

 preparation of the land; and, in fact, before we can 

 look forward to ultimate success, the surface must be 

 levelled, and the present injurious system of ridges dis- 

 pensed with. To a casual observer it is obvious that 

 our present state of culture, as pursued in most parts 

 of Europe, is not calculated to afford the necessary 

 facilities for ensuring a successful progression into 

 machinery. To supply machines successfully to the 

 labours of a farm, the land must be prepared, not for 

 hand, but machine labour ; and the successful intro- 

 duction of reaping machines will chiefly depend upon 

 the preparations that are made for their reception. 

 The system of ridges may be tolerated and overcome 

 by the sickle ; but to give to the new process of reap- 

 ing by machinery its full effect, a totally different plan 

 of operations must be pursued, and the fields laid down 

 with a perfectly smooth surface. The larger descrip- 

 tion of stones and other obstructions should be removed, 

 and in place of the superfluous water not required for 

 the nourishment of the plants being allowed to flow 

 between the ridges on the surface of the field, sweeping 

 in heavy streams, as it now does, everything before it, 

 the new system of drainage will require to be adopted, 

 aiu! the water carried under in place of running over 

 the surface. 



To make a machine, such as a reaping machine, work 

 well, everything must not be left to the machine; the 

 agriculturist must do his duty as well as the engineer ; 

 and that duty once performed on both sides, a certainty 

 of action will be secured, which will solve the problem, 

 and effect satisfactory results. Having arrived at these 

 happy results, we may then, and not till then, rea- 

 sonably look forward to the crops being well and quickly 

 gathered by machinery, to the excbifion of a laborious 

 process, effected with difficulty and often imperfectly 

 by the human hand." 



AIR: HOW INVALUABLE TO THE SUCCESSFUL HUSBANDRY OF THE SOIL 

 AND ITS PRODUCE, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE. 



In our former observations on this subject we directed 

 attention to a general view of it, promising to notice on 

 a subsequent occasion the individual case of soils, plants, 

 and animals, under the different atmospheric circum- 

 stances in which they are found. We now propose ful- 

 filling that promise. 



In doing so, let us examine wheat, grass, and turnips, 

 grown in different soils, climates, and under different 

 systems of cultivation. 



Under the first, as to soil, the practical question at 

 issue may be thus stated, How far does the atmosphere 

 affect the quality of wheat on any individual soil ? That 

 the nature of the soil and its atmosphere influences the 

 composition of both the grain and straw of this cereal, is 

 a fact with which farmers have been familiar from time 

 immemorial. To what extent, therefore, is this de- 

 pendent upon atmospheric phenomena ? Calcareous 

 soils, for example, and others abounding in organic sub- 

 stii.iucs, yield wheat containing a larger proportion of 

 gluten or nitrogenons matter, than do soils of an oppo- 



site quality. How much of this nitrogen is due to the 

 nitrogen of the atmosphere, and how much to that of 

 the manure incorporated with them ? 



In the case of a calcareous soil, the decomposition of 

 lime by means of air and water obviously works up the 

 oxygen of both the latter, liberating their nitrogen and 

 hydrogen ; while they, uniting together under favourable 

 circumstances, form ammonia (n 1 + h 3). In this 

 manner 82.545 lbs. of nitrogen, and 17.455 of hydrogen 

 wouldmake 100 lbs. of ammonia, requiring the decompo- 

 sition of 107.2 lbs. of common air and 167 lbs. of water. 

 Now, as this quantity of ammonia is a sufficient dose 

 for two acres of land, yielding an ordinary crop of 

 wheat, it will readily be seen that the decomposition of 

 this quantity of air and water over such an area, the 

 liberation of this quantity of nitrogen and hydrogen, 

 and their uniting together, is the most likely source 

 from whence the growing wheat plant derives a large 

 portion of its nitrogen. 



Pure ammoaia, however, cannot thus be formed io a 



