394. 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



the previous preparation of the land, to cnaMo Ibe 

 power of stoam to exercise its fullest capabilities. There 

 is no doubt whatever in the minds of thinking men that 

 if the power of steam is to be made available in an ex- 

 tended and economical way to the cultivation of our 

 fields, these must be arranged and modified in character 

 to admit of the free and full exercise of its power. As 

 we have already said, there must be a mutual adaptation 

 of material and machinery ; the machine must be fitted 

 to work the material into the final condition which is 

 desiderated, and the material must not present any 

 peculiarities which will prevent the machine giving its 

 best and its quickest work. Those peculiarities, if they 

 exist, must be got rid of — they are only prejudicial ; 

 and if they do harm to the machine, it is not to be 

 blamed as unfit for its work. The blame lies in allow- 

 ing it to operate upon material for the preparation 

 of which it was never intended. It is folly to expect 

 a spinning machine to weave, or a plough to dig. 

 We may perhaps be permitted fo repeat the following 

 sentences, which we have elsewhere given, bearing on 

 the point now under consideration : " The soil should 

 be rendered as friable as possible, and every impedi- 

 ment removed which would check the speed at which 

 the engine can work. We are well aware that this will 

 by many be objected to, as involving unnecessary la- 

 bour; but it will be obvious, on consideration, that the 

 more uniform in character we can obtain the material 

 upon which any machine we employ is to operate, the 

 more uniform will be the result, and by consequence 

 the more economically and certainly will it be obtained. 

 Take, for instance, the various processes involved in the 

 manufacture of cotton. No objection is made by the 

 manufacturer to the preliminary processes by which the 

 material is prepared to undergo the finishing opera- 

 tions. On the contrary, every exertion is made to 

 secure mechanism by which these can best be accom- 

 plished ; manufacturers being well aware that the more 

 completely what is called the "preparation" is eifected, 

 the more satisfactory will be the after-process or 

 " spinning." It would be, to say the least, a round- 

 about asvay of proceeding to take the crude cotton, and 

 spin it as best they could, and thereafter have ma- 

 chinery to rectify all the defects brought about by want 

 of attention to those preliminary procosses calcu- 

 lated to bring the material into the best condition fitted 

 for the final ones. And yet somnthing of this kind is 

 done every day in farming. We see processes carried on 

 at great expense of time and trouble, and complicated 

 mechanism to aid them witbal, which are, in fact, the 

 mere necessities of an unphilosophical mode of culture, 

 that neglects the preliminary process, which if effected 

 would leave the soil in the condition best calculated to 

 produce the crop, and obviate all necessity for after- 

 proceedings ; these after-proceedings being, in fact, 

 attempts to get rid of peculiarities which could have been 

 prevented more quickly and economically at first. It 

 is, in truth, a much more reasonable way to prevent 

 weeds from growinus than to invent and use an 

 elaborate machine to pluck them up when grown ; to 

 pick out boulders from the path of a steam-plough than 



to spend time and money in repairs of accidents which 

 their presence has brought about, or to stop the pro- 

 gress of the machine till the impediment has been re- 

 moved. It is by fur the most philosophical way, as it 

 certainly will be the most economical, to bring the ma- 

 terial on which any machine is to operate to that condi- 

 tion which will enable the machine to perform its work 

 with as little variation as possible. The more any piece 

 of agricultural mechanism departs from the character of 

 an implement, and approaches to that of a machine, the 

 greater is the necessity for the preparation of the mate- 

 rial.''* All experience, indeed, in steam-cultivation, is 

 gradually narrowing itself to this point — " preliminary 

 preparation " of the land. The Marquis of Tweeddale 

 — who has done as much as anyone, if large expenditure 

 of time and money can do anything, towards the solu- 

 tion of the great problem, albeit pjeans have not been 

 much chanted in his praise in the public press — states 

 that " the more fully he investigates the subject, the 

 more fully is he convinced of its necessity." Mr. J. A. 

 Williams, who can boast of no small experience on the 

 subject, also states that it is essential for the fair work- 

 ing of steam cultivation, that hedge-rows and timber be 

 no longer obstacles in its path; that pits shall be 

 filled up, boulders extracted from the soil, and that bene- 

 ficial exchanges of contiguous lands be made by the re- 

 spective owners, so that the " rough places be made 

 plain, and the crooked places straight." To this com- 

 plexion must it come at last : we have now arrived at 

 that stage in the history of steam-cultivation, the expe- 

 rience of which enables us with confidence to say that 

 the engineer has done — or done so nearly that little re- 

 mains to be accomplished by him — his part towards the 

 solution of the problem, so far as ste&m- ploughing is 

 concerned : it remains for the landlord and the farmer to 

 do their duty. Unsatisfactory as it may seem to many, 

 who look with distrust and doubt upon the direction in 

 which agricultural progress is being made, it is never- 

 theless the fact that all agricultural operations are fast 

 approaching that point where their daily routine will 

 have much of the precision and mechanical fitness, one 

 part to another, which characterizes the routine of our 

 manufactures. At one period in the history of those 

 manufactures, the aggregate result of the labour of 

 those engaged in them was attained by the divided 

 and somewhat desultory duties performed in isolated 

 positions. In quiet country nooks, and at cheery fire- 

 sides, the hum of the spinning-wheel, and the rattle of 

 the weaver's shuttle, were heard, mixed with the low of 

 cattle or the bark of the farmhouse dog. But when 

 Arkwright's and Horrocks' genius brought a new power 

 into existence, a concentration of capability was de- 

 manded, which speedily efTected changes more striking 

 far than ever the fabled Proteus made. The hum of a 

 single wheel and the clack of a solitary shuttle 

 give way to the din of thousands of revolving 

 wheels and clanking levers ; streams, pure in days of 

 yore, grew black and murky as the smoke which poured 



" The Book of Farm Implemenls and M«chinery" (p. 230). 

 Edited by llcnry Stephens. Blackwood: Eiliuburgh and 

 London. 



