404 



THE farmp:r's magazine. 



ttibutioii and freedom from loss by being blown away, the use 

 of a machine contrasted moat favourably with sowing by 

 hand. He was aware that a broadcast machine was not a 

 common thin,? on the farm ; but he believed that if the 

 gentlemen around him would inqu'ra carefully into its use, it 

 would soon become a standard implement. 



Mr. T. W. Granger (Stretham Grange, Ely), said ha had 

 used two machines, one made by Messrs. Garretr, of Ssxmun:- 

 ham, the other by Messrs. Holmes, of Norwich ; both of which 

 would spread in the most level and even manner from 3 to 

 100 bushels per acre. He thought so well of Messrs. Garrett's 

 machine at the Carlisle Meeting, that he purchased one, and 

 has used it constantly since to his perfect satisfaction. 



Mr. Nesbit, adverting to the remarks of Mr. Coussmaker, 

 observed that it was very easy to mix guano with such au 

 amount of water as would prevent ths wind from blowing any 

 of it away. Having seen the machines mentioned by Mr. 

 Granger at work, he could bear testimony that they distributed 

 manures beautifully, and in any quantity that might be re- 

 quired. 



The Chairm.vn, in closing the discussion, said he need 

 scarcclj' remark that he concurred in what had fallen from 

 Mr. Saiusbury with regard to the value of guano as a 

 manure. He thought, however, that very great risk 

 attended the application of it at different seasons and on 

 different sorts of land. He recollected that the first time lie 

 ever used guano it was in the second or third year after it 

 was first imported. He drilled 3 cwt. per acre with his 

 seed on the flat, and the consequence was that he lost his 

 crop ; that convinced him that drilling it was not the 

 most desirable mode of proceeding. The next year he 

 looked right and left among his neighbours for information, 

 and he then found that the best system Avas that of sowing 

 guano broadcast ; that system he had followed ever since. 

 He had always sown an equal weight of guano and salt; 

 and had taken care to sow, if possible, on a moist day — a 

 condition on which the ultimate benefit greatly depended. 



On one occasion (a dry season) he sowed on a damp morn- 

 ing, expecting rain, which happened to be followed by very 

 dry weather, and the result was that he lost a considerable 

 portion of the manure. As regarded the application of 

 guano with the seed, the machine mentioned by Mr. Sains- 

 bury miglit comprise all that was required. He fully con- 

 curred in the opinion that a mixture of guano with some 

 other substance was the best application for root crops. In 

 conclusion, he would again express a hope that they would 

 soon see guano sold at a lower price. 



Mr. J. Thomas (Lidliugtou Park) said, he should be sorry 

 if it went forth to the world that they had then heard for the 

 first time in their lives of such a drill as had just been referred 

 to. A quarter of a century ago it was the common practice iu 

 Bedfordshire, when a light dressing was used, to put the dress- 

 ing in to the depth of about three inches, after which there 

 followed the hoe or rake that covered up the manure, and after 

 that, again, the coulter that deposited the seeds of the mangel- 

 wurzel. 



;Mr. Sainsbury then replied : Adverting to the last re- 

 mark of Mr, Thomas, he said he did not dispute that there 

 was a drill in use five-auf-twenty years ago ; but the drill 

 which he had described was of a different description : the work 

 was done without the assistance of a rake to cover the ma- 

 nure. He took it for granted that the drill to which Mr. 

 Thomas referred would not drill guano or superphosphate of 

 lime in a pure state ; whereas, that which he used would de- 

 posit 2 cwt. or 3 cwt. of guano either with a bushel of ashes or 

 without them. 



On the motion of Mr. Gray, seconded by Mr. R. Baker, 

 a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Sainsbury for his paper ; 

 and. 



On the motion of Mr. Thomas, of Lidlingion Park, se- 

 conded by Mr. Congreve, thanks were also voted to the 

 Chairman. 



This terminated the proceedings. 



THE TRIAL OF THE STEAM-PLOUGH AT SALISBURY. 



People who would have had Milo make his first 

 essay with a full-grown bull — who teach infants their 

 first steps upon the debris of a hard-baked fallow— and 

 who think the earliest steam-carriage should have at- 

 tempted a miry clay lane— such reasonable individuals 

 are content for the steam-plough to break its shares 

 Jimong the ungrubbed roots of a felled forest, or strike 

 fire on the flints of Salisbury hill. But for our own 

 pai-t, we would urge upon the Council of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society the desirability of selecting a tole- 

 rably levil field of average friable loam or clay devoid 

 of big boulders, for the ensuing trials at Chester. Rely 

 upon it, the season in which the work has to be per- 

 formed will of itself operate against the action of the 

 implements so as to render the ploughing sufficiently 

 difficult. 



If the Society defrayed all expenses of the exhibitors, 

 a trial like that at Salisbury would merely stultify the 

 inventors, disappoint the great concourse of visitors, 

 inflict the reproach of public disgust upon the whole 

 subject of steam-tillage, and egregiously waste the 

 tunds of the members. But when the exhibitors are in- 

 vited to compete for the reward of their long toil and 

 rumous outlay of capital, to bear very heavy expenses 

 m preparation and compolition, and are then fixed in 



a situation where no fair display of their capabilities is 

 possible, they may certainly consider themselves 

 hardly used. However, we are all willing to " let by- 

 gones be bygones," and to regard the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society's business with a kindly spirit, only let it 

 treat us more considerately at the coming meeting. 



Let us now record what the judges end stewards say 

 of the matter, in the Society's own Journal. Messrs. 

 Clarke and Owen say : " The ground was altogether un- 

 suitable ; the soil was very shallow and unusually flinty ; 

 and the summer's drought had so hardened it, that it was 

 with great difficulty that the ploughs in the upper part 

 of the field could be made to enter it at all. The site 

 also of the field, upon a hill of considerable elevation, 

 occasioned great difficulties and delay." The senior 

 steward, Mr. Wren Hoskyns, says : " Such a soil, in 

 such a situation, hardened to such a condition not only by 

 its own flinty nature but by the long- continued influence 

 of one of the most extraordinary seasons that has ever 

 been known, were eno'ugh to render any trial practi- 

 cally abortive." And again: "It was upon this ele- 

 vated spot, accessible only from a narrow road by a 

 still narrower turning, very steep, and partly over soft 

 fresh-cultivated ground, that the steam-ploughing was 

 to come off, if at lea*t it cuikl over come on." Re- 



