52 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



even furrow sole, the work well laid, and I'airly cut — 

 not perhaps with that nicety and precision which might 

 be effected by a first-rate Howard, all sharp and well 

 set ia the hands of a champion prize-man — but truly 

 good workmanship, fit for the harrow or other purposes of 

 culture. The engine and windlass, as usual constituting 

 one machine, was at one end of the field, the patent 

 anchorage at the other, and the work went, on most 

 satisfactorily without let or liindrance, so much so that 

 the advocates of "steam-ploughing" at least, again 

 confessed the all-important question solved — the 

 general adoption of it merely a work of time and ex- 

 pedience. 



Mr. Smith, of Woolston, brought his complete set of 

 appliances for fulfilling or accomplishing every purpose 

 of culture by steam, llisengineand windlass are stationed 

 at a given point, and w ire ropes are laid out for completion 

 of the work : his anchorages are moveable anchors, with 

 reel attacheil, around whicli the ropes pass. These are 

 moved, as the work proceeds, by the workmen stationed 

 for that purpose. The implements consisted of three, 

 five, and seven-tined cultivators or grubbers, and his 

 celebrated double mould-board plough ; the whole 

 (engine and windlass excepted) manufactured by the 

 Messrs. Howard of Bedford, and got up, as we have 

 before said, in excellent style. The turning-bow, about 

 which we have heard so much, is in reality nothing more 

 than a plough-rake of peculiar form— indeed an elongated 

 bow with two projecting points, so set inside the bow as 

 to catch the loops of the wire rope, and by which it is 

 drawn round at the ends. Nothing can be more simple 

 or effective. Mr. Smith commenced with one of his 

 smaller cultivators, and although the work was 

 severe, the soil was turned up in excellent state 

 for the harrow at seven inches depth, with 

 comparative ease and extraordinary facility and quick- 

 ness, the pace travelled averaging about 3^ miles per 

 hour; he could soon have finished the whole field, had 

 he been permitted. After a while, his double mould- 

 board or trenching-plough was tried, and performed ad- 



mirably, even to the inversion of the soil ; or at least 

 such would have been the case, had he been permitted to 

 split the ridges first made. As it was, the grass seeds 

 were all so effectually covered, that general decay of the 

 grass and roots must take place, and so fit the surface ■ 

 for any future operations in culture. But we have still 

 other most powerful aids. Mr. Cambridge attracted much 

 favourable notice by bringing into the field his powerful 

 locomotive with Boydell's endless railway-pattens. This 

 engine, admirably driven as a " great iron horse," 

 drew, first, three of Eddy's ploughs, each held by a com- 

 petent workman, and made excellent work when fairly 

 arranged and the public permitted the men a view. 

 Subscqufiitly, Mr. Coleman's very powerful eight- 

 coultcred cultivator, adapted for steam-power, was at- 

 tached to it ; with this it stalked along, to the astonish- 

 ment of every visitor, making a powerful impression 

 on all present by the manner in which it broke up the 

 soil at great depth — showing in another phase the great 

 power of steam as applied to cultivation. 



This must conclude our report of the Cardiff Meeting — 

 a meeting which, we trust, will prove invaluable to the 

 agriculturists of the surrounding districts, as bringing 

 under their immediate notice the modern improvements 

 in agricultural science, in accordance with the design and 

 fundamental rules and migratory character of the Bath 

 and West of England Society, We should have been more 

 content — and we think a more complete development of 

 this science would have resulted — had more of our old- 

 established firms contended for the premiums. If these 

 firms can produce better implements, the district ought 

 to know it, and be permitted to see them tested. We 

 think it wrong that the public should not have the 

 opportunity. It may be inconvenient for implement 

 makers to manufacture trial implements yearly, but 

 there are grave objections to maintain none but triennial 

 trials ; and if societies cannot see their way clearly to in- 

 stitute them, we think manufacturerers will find it their 

 interest to fall in with the regulations adopted by such 

 societies for their own advancement. 



A WEST COUNTRY FARMER AT THE CARDIFF MEETING. 



Sir, — In company with a few of my neighbours I 

 went to see the Cardiff Meeting of the Bath and West 

 of England Agricultural Society, and as a very large 

 proportion of them were absent, it strikes me a few 

 comments which I made when there may be acceptable 

 to them through the columns of your paper. I say a 

 few of my neighbours went with me ; for the fact is, the 

 passage across the Bristol Channel was not relished by 

 others, who are not only landsmen, but men of the land. 

 To most of us it appeared as if the Society had gone 

 from their own supporters and subscribers, amongst 

 others who hive hitherto done little for the Society. 

 Time will prove how far the advances thus made by the 

 Council will be responded to by the people of Wales. 



Well, Sir, having got safely over the water — not men- 

 tioning casualties by the way — we went to work to fee 



and make some notes of what appeared most striking to 

 us. We were glad to find that — thanks to good manage- 

 ment — the yards were open to the public earlier than 

 usual, and that all seemed well and satisfactorily arranged 

 for their convenience. The implements first attracted our 

 notice ; and in Stand No. 1 we observed a prize thrash- 

 ing machine, well adapted for the small occupation of 

 the West of England, and manufactured by a Devon- 

 shire mechanic. It was evidently a good machine, and, 

 judging from Mr. Caldwell's speech after the annual 

 dinner, it appeared to do its work with far less damage 

 to the corn than many of the higher-priced machines. 

 The judges appeared to have taken from Stand 

 No. 2 Mr. Robert Boby's corn-screen, for the pur- 

 pose of testing the finished corn of the different 

 thrashing machines, and this tell-tale soon sur- 



