THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



75 



it was left ou the surface than when it was ploughed ioto the 

 subsoil. In that way it was left ready for turnips or mangold 

 wurzel, or any other crop, and that, too, at a time of the year 

 when they were all most busy — namely, in the spring. He 

 had no wish to enter iiito the vexed question whether Mr. 

 Fowler's syatem of operation or Mr. Smith's was the most 

 advantageous ; that was a queatioa which farmers and pur- 

 chasers must determine for themselves. All he could say 

 with regard to Mr. Smith's system was that he was perfectly 

 satisfied that, as far as scufHitin; weut, nothing could be better 

 done than what tha deputntiou saw at Woolston. They all 

 knew that ploughing could not be dispensed with. They 

 must all keep a certain number of horses on the farm for cart- 

 ing and other operations; and while the steam cultivator was 

 employed for the stubbles, ploughing might be advantageously 

 resorted to for the clover leys for the wheat crop. Althougii 

 steam cultivation was a most valuable auxiliary— nay, the 

 most valuable auxiliary ever placed at the farmer's command, it. 

 would noteiiabl'jhim to dispense with horse labour altogeth.r. 

 The U'ie of the two conjointly iu farming would, he believed, 

 always prove more economical than the use of either separately. 

 As regarded the relative economy of fixed and portable engines, 

 it was clear that the fixed engine was most economical for ope- 

 rations carried ou at a fixed place ; but where thrashing and 

 ether operations of the same kind could be carried on by 

 meaus of a portable engine, and that engine could afterwards 

 be taken into tr e field for the cultivation of the soil, the port- 

 able ejginc was the most economical of the two. 



IMr. T. F. Wilson (Essex) said, as regarded heavy 

 land, the question at issue was not so much one of cost as it 

 was a question whether at certain times, as regards weather, 

 the work was to be done at all. He had, over and over again, 

 applied to Mr. Fowler, and he would have paid almost any 

 price to plough up certain land for him, from 100 to 120 

 acres, immediately after liarvest, and there was no response. 

 The rich farmer was cautious and timid, and would not buy 

 the engine, although he might infer, from what he had seen, 

 that it would ansiver his purpose. The poor farmer could 

 not buy it, and all such farmers could do was to institute a 

 company, take shares in it, and get the work done 

 through that means at the lowest price. That was the 

 course which had been pursued in Ids own neighbourhood 

 with regard to thrashing : a company had been formed, an 

 engine obtained from Messrs. Ransome and Sims; the 

 shareholders obtained 5 per cent, for the money invested ; 

 the profit was expended in securing fresh steam power; and 

 the result was that, after the harvest of lijGO, there would 

 be three thrashing machines at work from the accumulated 

 profits of the first one. The company had been solicited to 

 use the engines for ploughing when they were not wanted 

 for thrashing ; but tliey refused to do so, saying that it could 

 not l>e done under their deed of co-partnership. He had 

 been to several people in his own neighbourhood to ask them 

 to undertake steam-ploughing, but they declined. If he had 

 five or six hundred pounds to spare, he would gladly attempt 

 it ; but, as an individual farmer, he had this great diffi- 

 culty, tiaat he could not always get skilled labour. [A 

 voice : " You don't want it."] 0, a fool might work it ! 

 He was glad to hear that, for there are plenty to be 

 had. (Great laughter.) The use of steam power in- 

 volved the necessity of skilled labour ; without it, indeed, 

 no one would think of resorting to it. He repeated, then, 

 that the real question was, by what means farmers generally 

 ^yere to obtain the command of steam power for the cultiva- 

 tion of the soil, and in his opinion the thing could only be 

 done by combination. 



Mr. James Hov/ard (Bedford) said, notwithstanding 

 what had fallen from Mr. Wilson, he believed there was 

 sufficient enterprise among farmers to carry steam cultiva- 

 tion to a successful issue without the formation of public 

 companies, and having sold to private individuals some 

 eighty sets of Smith's apparatus for the purpose, he thought 

 he had good grounds for his opinion. Some people argued 

 that because the letting out of steam thrashing-machines 

 had been successful steam cultivators must also be successful. 

 The two things were widely dift'erent. A steam thrashing 

 machine was mounted on wheels, and drawn readily from 

 place to place; but a steam cultivator, weighing altogether 

 8 or 10 tons, and distributed over a 30 or 40-acre field, 

 was not loaded and transferred from place to place quite ao 



readily as machines drawn on four wheels. The ex- 

 pense of removing the tackle from place to place would mili- 

 tate against any public company that might be started to 

 carry out steam cultivation. Steam cultivators were most 

 valuable for seven or eight weeks in the year ; but if a pub- 

 lic company invested three or four thousand pounds in the 

 purchase of half-a-dozen of them, they would soon dis- 

 cover to their cost that the demand for them did not extend 

 beyond that period. He thought, therefore, that if farmers 

 waited for steam cultivation until public companies had been 

 formed, they would have to wait a very long time ( Hear, 

 hear.) Mr. Wilson talked of skilled labour : now " skilled 

 labour" was a compsrative terra. His firm had had great 

 experience with regard to steam cultivators, and had never 

 found any diflSculty in getting men on the farms who were 

 intelligent enough to work the machine after having re- 

 ceived two or three days' instruction. On the farm of the 

 Emperor of the French, he might observe, there were 

 six Frenchmen, and after two days' instruction they 

 were equal to any six Englishmen. (Laughter.) Mr. 

 Wells made some remarks about the wear and tear of wire 

 rope?. When they had worn out a rope or two, they would 

 know how to use them, and he would guarantee that the se- 

 cond ropa which was bought would prove equal to two or 

 three of the first. Everything depended upon the way in 

 which such things were managed, and nothing required 

 greater care than the wire rope used in steam cul- 

 tivation. Ill listening to Mr. Wells's paper, it occurred to 

 him that tliat gentleman overlooked the fact that the farm- 

 ing of this country had arrived at a crisis in which some 

 power other than horse power was imperatively required, 

 seeing that the value of autumn cultivation was now fully 

 known and appreciated. The question was not whether 

 land could be ploughed as cheaply by horse power as by 

 steam power, but whether, when farmers had offered to 

 them a valuable auxiliary, they should avail themselves of it 

 for a few weeks in autumn, and at other periods when it 

 might be resorted to advantageouslj'. That was the point 

 for farmers to consider. Knowing how much the question 

 of steam cultivation has been discussed in the public jour- 

 nals, he was surprised to find that it was so little understood. 

 He thought that if that club were to appoint a deputation 

 of some half dozen practical men, to visit some ten or a 

 dozen farms which had been cultivated by steam power, 

 between the present time and the next harvest, and furnish 

 a report, much information would be thereby diffused, the 

 employment of steam power increased; and the Club would, 

 by pursuing such a course, raise itself still higher in the 

 estimation of the faraiers of England He should himself 

 be happy to furnish a list of fifty or sixty farms, and no 

 doubt Mr. Fowler and others who had supplied steam 

 cultivators would be ready to do the same. 



Mr. Pike (Stevington) said he should be sorry to be 

 obliged to go back to horse power on his cold, heavy land. 

 He used at this time of the year to be working fifteen horses, 

 but had reduced them to eight, and he was so forward 

 always with his work that his horses were then out at 

 grass, and he had plenty of opportunities for coming to Lon- 

 don or going anywhere else, (Laughter.) He had used 

 steam cultivation now for two years. Mr. Smith said they 

 should have horses ploughing the clover leys. Pie differed 

 from him on that point. He cultivated his clover leys, and 

 he had a better plant than his neighbours who ploughed. 

 He advocated breaking up clover ley early on strong land— July 

 cr August. Steam cultivation had been compared that even- 

 ing with horse ploughing. He should rather be inclined to 

 compare it with spade husbandry ; and he maintained that it 

 left the land in a better state than even that. He had been 

 asked what he would do if they had a wet season ? and of 

 what use his steam ploughing would be then ? Well, the 

 present season was not a very good one ; but he was happy to 

 say that his land did not look worse than that of his neigh- 

 bours. On the contrary, he thought it looked a little better. 

 His farm was in Bedfordshire. The soil was all strong ; yet 

 he had a 50-acre field without a furrow upon it. Indeed, 

 although his farm was hilly, and used to be laid in 3-yard 

 lands, he now had not a furrow or a water gutter upon it. 



Mr. John Thomas (Bletsoe) said that, as one of the 

 deputatioa who paid a visit to Woolston, he wished to ob- 

 serve that he was not merely pleased, but astonished, at the 



