128 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Vvhcre a .steaiu-engiuc was used to prepsiie the food, he 

 found that boys were placed under the men for the pur- 

 pose of being educated in working those engines. He 

 thought this was largely an educational que^tion. Be- 

 sides the employment of machinery, which was so 

 valuable, he thought the small farmers should not at- 

 tempt a too great use of steam-power, and that there 

 were many useful lessons to be learnt f) otn Ameiica, 

 wliere labour was dear, and also from the continent, 

 where coal was scarce. He would conclude by ex- 

 pressing his high opinion of the remarkably able paper 

 which had been read. 



Mr. Wren Hoskyns said, if he had wanted evi- 

 dence of what the general advancement of agriculture 

 in this country had been able to efftct, it could not be 

 more satisfactorily furnished than had been done iu the 

 eloquent and philosophical paper they had heard that 

 evening. He was struck with the tone of the paper; 

 because, although the subject was a physical one, yet it 

 went also into the metaphysical portion of the question, 

 and all those who read it, whetlier connected with 

 agriculture or not, could not but consider it as a most 

 useful production, showing that agiiculture had 

 made other strides than in matters connected merely 

 ■with mechanical improvement. With regard to the 

 remarks of the Chairman as to the desirability of 

 establishing something lil<e a specific relation between 

 the forces now employed in agriculture, he (Mr. Hos- 

 kyns) hud come to the same conclusion as Mr. Sidney, 

 viz., thai they had not yet sufficient data for the dis- 

 cussion of that question, because he could not submit 

 to the idea that they had as yet attained to the de- 

 velopment of the steam-engine in the culiivation of the 

 soil, which they were destined to witness. Far be it 

 from him to derogate from such splendid specimens of 

 well-applied labour and employment of capital with a 

 courage and determination not surpassed in any depart- 

 ment where human ingenuity had been applied, as had 

 already been afforded by the use of the steam-engine 

 in agriculture; but, for specific reasons connected with 

 agriculture itself, he could not believe that the point at 

 which they had now arrived afforded a true test of 

 comparison between the steam-engine and horse and 

 manual labour. One reason why the problem was 

 more difEcalt, was that the varieties of soil were so 

 much greater than many people were aware of. The 

 difference between the cultivation of light soil and stiff 

 waxy clay was as great as possible, and any conclusion 

 at present arrived at could only be of a very general 

 character. For when they said a steam-engine would 

 plough a shilling per acre cheaper than by the ordinary 

 method, it could only apply to some general average of 

 the soil. But when they saw what horse labour could 

 do upon light soils, where they could cultivate every 

 day in the year, because the labour was less severe, and 

 compared that with soil whi.li did not allow of access 

 to it, except for a month in spring and a couple of 

 months in autumn, the comparison between horse 

 labour and the steam-engine was most difficult. It 

 had been stated by Mr. Mechi that a horse required 

 sixteen hours of rest for eight hours of work. That 

 was understating the case, because a horse required 

 eight months of idleness for four months of work, on a 

 soil which would not admit of the tread of his foot ex- 

 cept when sufficiently dry for profitable cultivation to 

 take place. He could not conclude without a word 

 upon the condition of the agricultural labourer, as 

 spoken of by Prof. Wilson. There was, no doubt, 

 much truth in what the Professor had said. A fair 

 estimation of what the labourer was able to do was not 

 possible, because his powers were not entirely brought 

 out — either in a physical or moral point of view. If 

 they had more skilled and intelligent labour, they 



vs'ould have better results from the elements composing 

 it, and especially from that best element of all — the 

 will. He did not know a better foundation for this 

 than a juster distribution of the labourer over the soil, 

 and increased facilities for restoring the due proportion 

 of cottages for the residence of the labourers near their 

 work. Owing to the imperfect laws which had i educed 

 the means of living near their work, it was a fact that 

 labourers did half a soldier's day's work iu going to 

 and from the farm. He hoped that residences would 

 be ja'ovided for the labourers, in a way that would 

 make thtm a better investment of capital jlhan they 

 were at present. For some reason or other, which it 

 was difficult to fathom, cottage accommodation could 

 not be provided so as to make it profitable. One of 

 the best inducements to provide this accommodation 

 would be the power of doing so without loss to the 

 landlord. 



Mr. James Howard (of Bedford) said he sub- 

 scribed fully to the opinion that the general employ- 

 ment of steam-poTser in agriculture would tend to in- 

 crease the employment of labourers. Within his own 

 knowledge, it had in some degree extended the growth 

 of root crops. Ho could refer to a case in which 85 

 acres of roots were grown upon land which had never 

 before been so cropped ; and if tin y grew larger root 

 crops, they increased the crops of corn, and increased 

 also the employment of labour. Looking at the in- 

 crease of population in this country since the extension 

 of steam-power in our manufactories, he was surprised 

 to find that it took upwards of 200 years previously to 

 the introduction of the steam-engine to gain an increase 

 in the population of 200,000,000 ; whilst since ils intro- 

 duction the papulation had increased 12,000,< 00. He 

 thought there were no more effectual means of raising 

 the intelligence of the fiirm labourer than a more gene- 

 ral introduction of steam-power. A farmer who paid 

 a man merely to swing a fl:nl could not afford to pay 

 for intelligence — it was nothing more than the exercise 

 of brute force; but to a man who paid £500 for a 

 steam-engine, a sliilling per day additional would be a 

 trifle in the wages of the men employed to direct that 

 machinery. 



Mr. Alderman Mechi said lie felt it nothing less 

 than a duty to pay his tribute of thankfulness and ad- 

 miration to Mr. Morton for his able paper. He en- 

 tirely agreed with the tenor of it. He was quite sure 

 that in his calculations of the economy of horse-power 

 over human labour, and of steam over horse-labour, 

 Mr. Morton had not over-stated the case. He (Mr. 

 Mechi) had employed a steam-engine on his farm for 

 the last ten or eleven years,,though it was regarded by 

 his neighbours as an act of folly to use a steam-engine 

 upon a farm of 170 acres. His experience during that 

 period had convinced him that the emiiloymcnt of 

 steam-power had not diminished the demand for labour, 

 but had rather increased it, whilst it produced a most 

 beneficial eflect upon the profits of the farmer and the 

 intelligence of the labourer. They were all creatures 

 of prejudice; but he had yet to learn that agricultural 

 prejudices were stronger than those of other people, 

 and he hoped that the showing of Mr. Morton that 

 £60 out of £100 could be suved by the substitution of 

 steam-power for horse-labour would tend very largely 

 to remove all prejudice upon that point. With regard 

 to the scarcity of labour, no doubt the cause had been 

 correctly stated by Mr. Chadwick. When they looked 

 at tlievast increase that annually took place in the ex- 

 ports and imports of this country, they must see that 

 the mere keeping the accounts, and the handling of the 

 goods about, must absorb an enormous amount of 

 labour. Looking at his own immediate locality, he 

 found that men had been abstracted from agriculture 



