THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



393 



gearing from a spur-wheel, which engages with a second 

 spur-wheel on the shaft of the engine driving-wheel. 

 The length of the cut taken can be regulated by means 

 of change-wheels. 



By the use of the cultivating machine, the judges are 

 of opinion that a considerable saving of power is effected 

 in strong and stony soils, and the soil left in an open 

 condition. With the shaft making 75 revolutions i;er 

 minute, and the engine advancing 20 feet, the fines 

 take a siice 4 J inches wide by G inches deep, the 

 length being 7 feet — this gives 9U poles per hour, or 

 5f acres per day, as the quantity of land vvoiked up. 

 The expenses being set down at £1 15s. 9d. jier day, 

 the cost of cultivating per acre by this machine is 9s. 



Last year, in an article in this Journal, under date 

 Dec. 21st, we concluded a series of investigations into 

 the action of the plough as compared with that of imple- 

 ments which merely turned up and disintegrated the 

 soil, by remarking that every year's experience tended 

 to bring to a closer bearin^c upon f he practice of agri- 

 culture this question ; shall the plough, and the pecu- 

 liar work which it performs, be accepted as the imple- 

 ment by which, and the manner in which, culture shall 

 be effected .'' and that chief among the influences thus 

 operating would be that of steam. This year's experi- 

 ence at Chester with the new power has given 

 greater importance than ever to this question. The 

 plough, steam-dragged, has met with opposition in 

 the field by plans essentially different in principle 

 and operation, and which have received highly 

 favourable notices from the judges. The advocates 

 of the new system of culture, therefore, inspired 

 with new life and cheered by fresher hopes, will be 

 prompted still more energetically to bring the question 

 to an issue. It is quite evident that the plough, to give 

 us a deeper-stirred soil with a due economy of traction 

 power, must be modified in its details ; and apart from 

 the question of economy, the still more important one 

 of agricultural fitness remains to be discussed. While, 

 therefore, the experience of the trials at Chester have 

 given us decided evidence of what the power of steam 

 can do for us in the field, it behoves us to consider well 

 in what way and to what mode of culture we can best 

 adopt it. It will not do to say that because the plough 

 has done good work with horse, it will also do good work 

 by steam traction. This is not the philosophical way 

 to settle the point. No one denies the fact that the 

 plough does good work, but it is only good work of its 

 kind. The question is quite another one. Is it of the 

 kind we want ? It is always a good plan, when we 

 wish to get at the root of any matter, not to mingle two 

 questions in one discussion — not to bother oureelves, for 

 instance, when we want to discover the best method of 

 weaving cloth, with considerations as to how to find a 

 market for it when it is woven. The making of the 

 cloth, and the selling of it, are two distinct things ; that 

 is obvious enough. So in the matter before us, the 

 question of what condition of soil the farmer wants for 

 his crop, is quite distinct from that which involves the 

 consideration of the mechanic as to the method by which 

 he is to bring about this condition of soil. The first 



point, therefore, to consider is, what is the condition of 

 soil required ? Is it imperatively essential that the 

 surface shall be inverted, laid ovrr in regular slices, and 

 at a determinate angle ? If the question is answered in 

 the affirmative, then the point is a very narrow one — 

 the plough must be retained ; if in the negative, then 

 a wide field for the operations of the mechanic is opened 

 up. Here, then, the farmer is to decide ; and in truth 

 the decision is easily made ; for surely all will agree that 

 what is wanted is a seed-bed, and that, as far as the 

 farmer is concerned, it matters little to him whether he 

 obtains this by one process or another. "What we 

 want," says a well-known and graphic writer on this 

 point, " is the end : wc care not for the process. Give 

 me a seed-bed, show me the soil comminuted, aerated, 

 and inverted, six or eight inches deep, and I will not 

 ask how it came so. If you wanted your coffee ground 

 for breakfast to a certain fineness of texture, would you 

 be very particular to ask whether the mill that crushed 

 the fragrant berry had worked by horizontal, vertical, 

 alternate, elbow-crank, or by circular motion ?" But 

 the misfortune of the thing in practice is, that farmers 

 will ask how the seed-bed is prepared, and, what is worse, 

 will insist upon its being prepared in certain ways, 

 according to preconceived notions. Hence the mind 

 is muddled, by thinking more of the means than the 

 end ; and the untoward influence extends itself to our 

 engineers and mechanics, who retard the progress of the 

 new power by endeavouring to yoke it to the old imple- 

 ment ; thus mixing up two points which have in reality 

 no connexion with each other; for the questions, " How 

 can steam be made available in the preparation of the 

 soil.'" and " Must it be so through the medium of the 

 plough ?" are very distinct. The real question for the 

 engineer to consider is, " How can steam be made avail- 

 able to the purposes of cultivation ?" And this ought to 

 be philosophically considered, without any reference 

 whatever to established methods of procedure. 



It has been unfortunate for the rapid progress of 

 steam culture, that in the minds of the majority of those 

 who have paid attention to its realization, cultivation 

 has been considered to be ploughing or digging, or has 

 been associated in a manner more or less decided, with 

 some established implements ; whereas, had the question 

 been, " Here is a new power ; how best can I apply it?" 

 we believe that greater progress had been made. " The 

 idea of ploughing," says the writer already quoted — 

 and his words possess peculiar importance at the present 

 juncture — " and digging, stands like a thick blind 

 before the whole philosophy of the subject, and screens 

 the inventive mechanician from the simple application of 

 his mind to the quod est faciendum : his faculties are 

 clogged, stupified, held in check by the pestering con- 

 templation of processes that enter not necessarily into 

 the problem to be solved, nor need appear in its solu- 

 tion. They are unessential to the matter." 



However much daily experience may narrow the 

 question just considered, to a point at which it can be 

 easily set at rest, it is difficult to say ; but in connection 

 with another point in steam culture, experience 

 speaks out in a way decided and explicit : we refer to 



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