74 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



portunity it gives him of embracing any sudden move- 

 ment of an upward tendency in preparing liis produce 

 for market, or, in any peculiar season, the soil for the 

 reception of the ssed, in case he can command a suffi,. 

 cient working staff independently of what is necessary 

 for the regularly working of the farm. 



Mr, Chairman and Gentlemen, I have to thank you for 

 thepatienthearingyouhavegiven to these lengthy remarks. 

 I had no idea, when I volunteered to open this subject for 

 discussion, that so much could have been introduced, 

 especially as other papers bearing on the merits of steam- 

 power have previously been before the Club. I can 

 only add, I have endeavoured candidly to set before you 

 the advantages to be derived by the farmer under cer- 

 tain conditions, and the disadvantages that may accrue 

 from other causes by the use of steam-machinery, and 

 I now leave it in your hands for discussion how far fixed 

 steam-power and machinery is superior to locomotive 

 in preparing the pioduce for market, and the other 

 necessary works previously detailed, and whether, on 

 the other hand, the introduction of steam-machinery 

 for the cultivation of the soil will be more rapidly de- 

 veloped on the hiring system, or on that at present in 

 operation ; but whatever may be the opinion ultimately 

 arrived at, all I think will agree that agriculturists are 

 greatly indebted to the promoters of this powerful agent 

 for what it has already accomplished. 



Mr. Smith (Woolston) said, from what they had 

 heard from Mr, Wells, it would appear that there was 

 very little chance for steam cultivation. According to 

 him, nearly all they could hope for was that steam, as 

 applied to thrashing, grinding, and so on, would beat 

 horse labour — a matter with regard to which they had 

 had twelve years' experience. Now, before they con- 

 demned steam cultivation, let them look a little a-head, 

 and see what evidence they had with regard to it. Mr, 

 Clarke said the rotary cultivator was the best. That re- 

 mained to be proved : there was no evi Jeucc on the point, 

 and consequently that part of Mr. Wells's paper must go 

 for nothing. Again, Mr. Wells said that he (Mr. Smith) 

 did not reduce manual labour. That was a most important 

 point. He would prove that he did reduce it. On .his cold 

 heavy land, which the deputation visited, he had never in 

 his life been able to plough more than five acres with six 

 teams of four horses once over ; and he never crossed it with 

 less than three horses in five days : that was tremendously 

 hard work. Now he could smash-up easily with his eight- 

 horse power engine, using only 451bs. of steam, five acres in 

 a day. Last year, after having smashed it up once by 

 steam, he put it into ridges the next time for his turnips, 

 and they were growing now. He could not have ridged 

 after one ploughing, so that he must have cross-ploughed 

 before he ridged. Let them now observe the cost. At 

 present he expended on five acres for 7 men and boys 17s. 

 b'd. ; formerly he employed 11 men and 11 boys for the same 

 work at an expense of £1 7s. Gd. There Avas 10s. extra for 

 manual labour as compared with steam. The next point 

 was wear and tear, which was a very important matter. 

 He must conf«ss that at present he had never gone upon 

 anything but estimates, for he had not yet worn out a set 

 of ropes. He bought a set of ropes for £34 five years ago, 

 and they were still iu good working order. His farm con- 

 sisted of 110 acres, consequently the ropes might be said to 

 have served for 550 acres, with the exception that he 

 had bouglit some new tackle for experimenting with, last 

 Winter, and in the Spring. Plow much longer his ropes 

 would last he could not conjecture, but allow he had made 

 it do for five years, that item of expense could not be said to 

 have gone very deep into his pocket, especially when ho had 

 deducted the saving in blacksniithjng and gearing his 

 reduced number of horsps, say two less at £1 10s, 

 a-year each. He would now proceed to explain 

 his system. That system was to take advantage of 

 the best weather directly after harvest. Immediately 

 after his harvesting was finished, he got his steam culti- 

 vator to work on his bean stubbles, mashing them up 



once, while his horses were ploughing his clover-leys. The 

 moment the smashing was over he had the manure, while 

 the land was aorating for wheat, put on the wheat stubbles 

 for beans and turnips. The horses then went back to cul- 

 tivate his bean stubbles and drill his wheat, his steam cul- 

 tivator being at work upon his stubbles, smashing them up, 

 and preparing them for Winter. His ridging work on 110 

 acres was all done last j'ear in September and October in 

 ten days. The whole of the work was done by the first 

 week in November, the ridging by horses; and the land 

 was laid up for the Winter like a garden. The deputation 

 saw it a few weeks ago in the same condition in which it 

 was left last November, and he 'would leave them to say 

 whether the work was done well, or whether horses could 

 touch it. He had gone 14 inches deep. That 14-incli work 

 Mr. Wells had not said much about ; but he (Mr. Smith) 

 could tell them that it was a most important item. The 

 land was not in that pitch-plaster state in which horses 

 left it, treading it as they did till it almost resembled a 

 turnpike road (Hear, hear). With horse labour the rain 

 fell into the furrows, and carried the muck with it into the 

 sea. The steam cultivator, however, opened the land, so 

 that the water passed through ; the earth picked up all the 

 good that was contained in the water, and as soon as the 

 water was gone the air passed in, snd acted upon the mine- 

 ral muck which was under foot. It was that which gave 

 them lood, as the result of the Lois Weedon system had 

 placed beyond question. It was to the subsoil that the 

 farmers of England must look ; and he contended that steam 

 had beaten horse-labour all to pieces. 



The Chairman called upon Mr. Owen Wallis, as a member 

 of the deputation who visited Woolston, to state the result of 

 what he sav/ there. 



Mr. Wallis (Overstone) was happy to have that opportu- 

 nity of spying a \e.fi words with regard to the very satisfactory 

 character of that visit. He was quite snreall who accepted Mr. 

 Smith's invitation would agree with him in stating that they 

 saw a most interesting and a well cultivated farm (Hear, hear). 

 They eiiw laiid cultivated by steam-power which he, for one, 

 should have thought altogether impracticable for such culti- 

 vntion. The soil was, iu some parts, of a stubborn and tena- 

 cic'us character, and there was great irregularity of surface; 

 yet the work of the steam-cultivator was done in a most 

 satisfactory manner. The laud had evidently been deeply 

 cnlt.vated and well ridged, and the crops cultiyated were iu 

 every respect as good, he believed, as any that had been seen 

 0!i laud of the same description. He was now speaking of 

 Mr. Scith's clay land, and his strong soil. Upon his better 

 description of soil, which < xhibited all the characteristics of 

 gardeu farming, the cultivaiiou was very deep — indeed, he 

 r.ever saw aiiy so deep ; he never saw land so friable, and 

 with so beautiful a tilth for the recepticu of any class of 

 plauta whicli it might be thought desirable to grow. With 

 regard to steam cultivation generally, he thought too much 

 stress had hjcn laid upon the relative cost of steam-power 

 and horse labour (Hear, hear). He admitted that when the 

 two were cjmpartd, horse labour was in some instances appa- 

 rently the cheapest ; but when they considered the results of 

 the operations, the comparison was in favour of steam. Al- 

 though steam might in the first instance cost more per acre 

 than horse labour, yet the land being left by it in the most 

 desirable state for after-cultivatioa, it might in the end be the 

 cheapest. One great advantage of steam was, that it enabled 

 them to do a great quantity of work at the time when it 

 was most desirable that it should be performed, namely, im- 

 mediately after harvest — at the period when, in consequence 

 of the land being warm, the work led to the greatest results. 

 They must get the laud well broken up while it was in a dry 

 state, and when the twitch was ou the surface. He entirely 

 con'-urred with Mr. Smith that twitch ought never to be 

 ploughed in. Let them plousjh it in, and every bit of it would 

 rise up in judgment against them some day or other; let them 

 keep it on the surface, and what they did not destroy in the 

 aiituma would be nearly all killed for them by the frost of 

 winter. Supposing that they had succeeded iu bringing the 

 land into a good state for receiving manure, he thought it was 

 safest to put the manure on iu dry weather. He was one of 

 those who thought that no harm was done by letting manure 

 lie o:i the surface ; indeed, he thought it did more good when 



