THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE 



69 



regards thrashing by fixed hnrBe-power, and still worse 

 by locomotive machinery, as I shall hereinafter lay be- 

 fore you. In concluding my remarks on this portion of 

 my subject, 1 would warn my brother-farmers against 

 the doctrine laid down in the paper by our friend Mr. 

 Mechi, that " it is a great convenience to your neigh- 

 bours to send in their corn to you to be ground ;" 

 and, further, " I find that in this way the money I 

 receive for grinding for others pays for all my coals, 

 so that my engine only costs the wear and tear 

 and attendance, and still does all my work." If 

 this system is to be taken as the basis of profit- 

 ably introducing steam-power on farms, why not 

 apply it to the whol : of the cereal produce grown 

 thereon, as has been tried on the experimental 

 farms at Patrington, Fairfield, &c. ? This opinion rests 

 on the assumption that no public mill exists in the 

 neighbourhood, also that the erection of fixed steam- 

 power on farms is still to continue an exception to the 

 rule, and that the occupier must be a miller, or keep up 

 a regular staff to conduct the grinding department, all 

 of which is not only out of the category of common 

 farming, but is likewise an argument that without 

 extraneous aid the area and quality of the farm will not 

 produce sufficient to re-imburse the occupier for the 

 expense attendant on the introduction of steam-power. 

 In offering an opinion on how small a farm it will pay 

 to erect a steam-engine, it ought to be calculated by the 

 produce and not by the area ; and I have no doubt that 

 any farmer occupying land producing annually from 

 four to five hundred quarters of grain, and requiring 

 food for eight or ten horses with the other usual stock 

 in proportion, would find a fixed engine, and 

 such machinery as I have described, a profitable 

 investment. The advantages derived by the use of 

 locomotive steam-power are the saving of loss of 

 corn by shaking, and the expense of getting 

 the rick into the barn ; the escape by the work- 

 people from the annoyance of dust, which naturally 

 is more confined in a building, and (where the occupier 

 has separate holdings) a saving of outlay, by the removal 

 of the engine from one steading to another. The argu- 

 ment sometimes used that he can thrash his neighbour's 

 corn as well as his own, I treat precisely on the princi- 

 ple as the miller's work by the fixed engine ; and if 

 steam cultivation, which is referred to hereafter, comes 

 into general operation, no doubt it can be made availa- 

 ble for that purpose. These disadvantages I believe, 

 on examination, will be found to out-weigh what I have 

 enumerated ; and in this I am borne out by the fact of 

 three gentlemen resident in my own neighbourhood, 

 who had purchased locomotive engines with the idea of 

 carrying out more or less the views I have laid down, 

 having either made fixtures of them, or changed them 

 for fixed engines. Let us, therefore, consider the cause. 

 First, then, as regards an engine of equal power, the 

 prime cost of a locomotive is 10 per cent, above a fixed 

 one ; this, with a shade, brick-built and tiled or slated, 

 for the protection of the engine and machine when not 

 at work, will be about equal to the cost of the addi- 

 tional buildings for a fixture. The piston of an engine 

 makes two-hundred and twenty feet per minute, the 

 crank of a fixture being generally one-third larger 

 than a locomotive ; thus a fixed engine with twelve- 

 inch crank would require a two-feet stroke, and make 

 fifty-five revolutions per minute, where the locomotive 

 with nine- inch crank and eighteen inches stroke would, 

 to perform the same work, have to make seventy-three 

 revolutions in a similar space of time, consequently 

 causing considerably increased friction ; the horizontal 

 position of the piston, without great care, rapidly be- 

 comes oval-shaped, which is not so liable to be the case 

 when perpendicular. The concentrated form of the boiler, 



compared with those attached to fixed engines, is another 

 serious item in expense ; being multitubular, it is diffi- 

 cult to clean, and wears rapidly away ; and, what is still 

 more fatal, the injurious effect produced by transition 

 on bad roads, and constant oscillation when working. 

 From these causes I think I may safely estimate the 

 wear and tear of a locomotive to be fully 20 per cent, 

 above that of a fixed engine. The slovenly state the 

 stack-yard has for a time to be left in after a thrashing- 

 day, the detriment to the chaff and pulls, the increased 

 number of hands required (about double) — many, not 

 being regular labourers, have to be paid a higher rate 

 of wage — the extra liability to accident by fire, the 

 fetching of water, carrying away of corn, restacking of 

 the straw, and the not unfrequently having all thrown 

 out of work by wet weather sometimes for days, and at 

 other periods during the day by storms or by thunder- 

 showers, all tend to injure the produce and increase the 

 expense. The reasons I have advanced, and the calcu- 

 lations I have this evening laid before you, I think must 

 prove the advantages gained by the substitution of steam 

 for horse power in that department of agriculture that I 

 have introduced for discussion ; and, further, that where 

 the quantity of produce on the farm is such as L have 

 previously intimated, the occupier who is desirous of 

 adopting the most economical, safe, and convenient 

 course will determine in favour of a fixed engine. 

 Though more a landlord's than an occupier's question, 

 I must not omit mentioning the benefit arable land 

 lying below the level of the nearest outfall has de- 

 rived from the introduction of steam-power in conjunc- 

 tion with the Appold and other pumps, which, by rais- 

 ing the water to a sufficient sTltitude to allow it to pass 

 away through high-level drains, has converted many thou- 

 sand acres of unimproveable waste into land of the most 

 fertile description. This subject was so ably introduced 

 by Mr. Mechi in his paper on steam in agriculture, that 

 it would be bad taste on my part to comment further 

 thereon. 



The next subject I propose for consideration in 

 conjunction with steam is the pipe or tile draining 

 plough ; and no doubt, if this could have been brought 

 into general use, it would have superseded more manual 

 labour than all other appliances of steam to agricultural 

 purposes. Those who have witnessed its operations 

 must have been pleased with the ingenuity and perse- 

 verance of its spirited introducer ; and on strong land 

 of an undulating character I saw, in Cleveland, several 

 years ago, some apparently good work, though I have 

 since learned that it has proved far from perfect. I was, 

 however, at that time induced to ask Mr. Fowler to in- 

 spect the estate in the neighbourhood where I reside, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining whether a contract mutually 

 advantageous could be entered into for its drainage. 

 Three difficulties, however, arose : first, the flatness of 

 the surface, which would have caused considerable 

 manual labour in preparing the land for the plough ; 

 secondly, the draining of the lands in summer, entailing 

 a loss to the occupier of a year's rent ; and, lastly, the 

 actual cost per rod or chain by manual labour for laying 

 the pipes three feet six inches in depth was less than 

 Mr. Fowler could undertake to contract for. The 

 drainage plough was likewise tried on a strong-landed 

 estate a few miles from me, and with no better success ; 

 the great drawback at that time seemed to be, as in my 

 case, the inability of laying an even-bottomed drain over 

 an uneven surface. I believe some further improve- 

 ments were afterwards effected, but it certainly has not 

 acted generally in a manner to supersede manual labour, 

 and as such I can claim no advantage for the farmer by 

 its introduction. 



Whether the traction engine, Romaine's and the 

 Archimedian cultivator, and other rotary ma- 



