THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



261 



A STATE OF TRANSITION. 



The steam-plough would appear to be nearer a 

 realization than many might suppose. The Salisbury 

 failures are already forgotten, or satisfactorily ex- 

 plained. Mr. Smith, of Woolston, has now, it is said, 

 upwards of thirty of his implements in use. Mr. 

 Fowler still continues to work by contract; while Mr. 

 Romaine is in better heart than ever as to the suc- 

 cess of his scheme. The great test of such a process 

 is becoming practicably susceptible of an application. 

 There is to be economy in every possible way — a saving 

 of money, labour, and time. The work, too, is to 

 be better done, and the results proportionately greater. 

 Mr. Smith, Mr. Mcchi, or Mr. Fowler will either of 

 them testify to a quarter more per acre, where steam- 

 power has superseded that of horses. The improve- 

 ments of late have been, in fact, so striking, that we 

 are told to look upon the experiment as accomplished. 

 Mr. Smith has sold his cart horses, and talks not only 

 of what he himself, but what his " brother farmers," 

 are doing. Mr. Fowler is yet more decisive in his 

 dicta : — "as far as steam-ploughing was concerned, he 

 considered his task done." 



In a matter of this kind we look more especially to 

 "the latest intelligence;" and this certainly goes far 

 to support Mr. Fowler in what he here asserts. His 

 more recent trial at Stirling was unquestionably a 

 very triumphant one, backed as it was by the full 

 premium of the Highland Society. Mr. Smith, of 

 Woolston, again, offers us proof of equally high cha- 

 I'acter, although coming, perhaps fortunately, through 

 less public channels. Gentlemen who have worked 

 his plan, not for an hour or two on a show day, but on 

 their own farms and with their own men, volunteer 

 him testimonials of its practical efficiency. Even be- 

 yond this the two most famous of all our plough- 

 makers are directly concerned in this new branch of 

 business. The Ransomes have Mr. Fowler's inven- 

 tion in their keeping ; and the Howards are manufac- 

 turing Mr. Smith's implements. 



There must be something in this ; and both landlord 

 and tenant may look to it a little closer than they 

 hitherto have done. Of course it would never do for a 

 tenant to be engaging in every new speculation brought 

 out for his benefit, or in trying every experiment for 

 that of other people. "We believe that, as far not only 

 as regards useful, but even promising discoveries, the 

 farmers have of late years quite done their share of the 

 good work. It is a serious matter, however, to ask a 

 man to give four or five hundred pounds for a piece of 

 machinery, or to lay out five-and-twenty or thirty 

 pounds an acre in putting his land in order, before he 

 is quite sure that either process may answer. This has 

 been the case witn our agi'icullurists. They have not 

 ti'eated the many plans for ploughing: by steam 

 with neglect or indifference, but have simply waited for 

 something really practical and serviceable. It is only 

 within the last few months that such a consummation 

 has been arrived at. 



Indeed, we never remember to have seen the subject 

 80 boldly faced as it was at the recent meeting at the 

 Society of Arts. With one notable exception, there was 

 not a speaker but who looked on ploughing by steam as 

 very near its realization. The occasion was the reading 

 of a paper by Mr. Algernon Clarke, that we give in full 

 elsewhere. Himself somewhat of an enthusiast in the 

 cause, Mr. Clarke still scarcely appeared to the advan- 

 tage he might have done. His essay, in short, was written 



and sent in a year since. His able summary or history 

 of the different processes for applying steam to the culti- 

 vation of tlie soil had consequently been very much anti- 

 cipated — amongst others, in our own columns. His 

 suggestions for improving the most successful of these 

 inventions shared much the same fate — as in the 

 instance of Fowler's plough, they have already been 

 acted on. Nevertheless the paper wiJ always have a 

 value, as the impartial summing up of one who unites 

 something of the mechanic's taste and skill with the 

 education and the habits of the farmer. Mr. Clarke 

 concluded by submitting a plan of his own. However 

 this may succeed, it shows the soundness of his deduc- 

 tions that the very amendments he would propose have 

 been adopted. Mr. Clarke could scarcely have desired 

 a higher compliment. 



The discussion that ensued should have been one of 

 the most interesting of the season. The meeting em- 

 braced all the component parts for such a purpose. As 

 we expected, from the time fixed there was scarcely a 

 tenant-farmer present, although many far better pre- 

 pared to speak to the point. There was Mr. Fowler to 

 answer for his plough, and Mr. Smith for his. There was 

 Mr. Romaine to tell what he was doing, and Mr. Halkett 

 to declare what he wished to do. There was Mr. Boydell 

 to offer his aid; Messrs. Ransome and Howard to keep 

 the amateurs straight and fair; and Mr. Mechi to 

 prove what cart-horses cost, and steam-ploughing had 

 done. Unfortunately only three or four of these had a 

 hearing. The discussion opened with the reading of a 

 letter from Mr. Garrett, who " felt little improvement 

 had been made in the art by any of the methods during 

 the last two years," and who consequently still inclined 

 to an undeveloped scheme of his own for a steam dig- 

 ger ! Then Mr. Mechi dwelt on the marked sujieriority 

 of ploughing by steam : — "There was a difftrence in 

 the crop of wheat of at least a quarter per acre in 

 its favour." The excellence of Fowler's work, the 

 money (upwards often thousand pounds) spent in per- 

 fecting Romaine's machine, and the advantage of foi-k- 

 digging, formed the chief features in the ex-sheriff's 

 address. Mr. Ransome, also, bore testimony to the 

 results of Fowler's method of ploughing ; the supe- 

 riority of the spade to the plough, and the damage 

 done by the horses' feet. He was followed in turn by 

 a Mr. Newton, who declared himself "not a practical 

 agriculturist," and who did not appear to be a practi- 

 cal mechanic. He might well have left the dis- 

 cussion to those so much better qualified to carry 

 it on. Mr. Fowler "ventured to say the system 

 he had introduced was a step in the right di- 

 rection. There could be no question that it was 

 really a practical plan, inasmuch as it performed 

 the ploughing at half the cost of horse-power, and the 

 work was bettir done. Seven acres of sandy sail in 

 the neighbourhood of Ipswich, ploughed by steam, 

 had a yield of aqnartir per acre more in crop." After 

 adniittinn- the superiority of hand spado cultivation 

 over even steam ploughing, and bearing witness to 

 what Mr. Boydell had done for steam traction, Mr. 

 Fowler asked, " Who was to try all these experi- 

 ments ? Were the inventors to bear the whole brunt 

 of that which was in fact a national benefit ? The 

 liuidlords hitherto had done little. The Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society had given no help. He could only 

 state that the trial of his system at Salisbury was ap- 

 pointed to take place on a steep hill, resembling 



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