THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



169 



growth of roots and better clovers, must have raised the 

 value of the fee-simple at least £15 per acre, so that the 

 steam plough is clearly one of the " landlord's questions," no 

 less than a tenant's boon. The Woolston farm is certainly 

 an example of the chanj^e in texture and physical constitu- 

 tion which intercommunion with the atmosphere can induce 

 in strong soil ; the land once so compact and dense is now 

 perceptibly elastic beneath the feet, lighter and more friable, 

 anddrying sooner after rain ; and this because the husband- 

 man determines to promote absorption and exudation, being 

 as careful in his management of each field in all stages of the 

 weather as a hydropathic patient in the treatment of his 

 skin. Let the soil breathe, and at the same time give it 

 luugs, by making it porous and spongy, with ait cells and 

 passages, so that the gases of the atmosphere may freely 

 enter, imparting organic plant food and preparing the 

 mineral elements which lie dormant ; and whatever 

 manurial restoratives may be demanded on light lands, our 

 English clays will not need the assistance of Baron Liebig 

 and Mr. Mechi. 



In conclusion, let it not be supposed that one description 

 of steam tilling machinery is specially adapted for extensive, 

 and another only for small farms. The cost price of a steam 

 plough rauges from ucarlji- £800 down to almost half this 

 sum ; and a considerable number of engines are at work on 

 farms of all sizes, both with Mr. Fowler's and Mr. Smith's 

 apparatus. Mr. Fowler has published 13 reports from pur- 

 chasers in ten counties, and Messrs. Howard of Bedford 

 (manufacturers of the Woolston implement) have printed 

 34 reports from employers in 20 counties — the two publica- 

 tions alike embracing the experience of large and other 

 occupiers, on light, medium, and heavy land. The tes- 



timony in every case is remarkable aa to the quantity of 

 work got forward in each season, the economy and advan- 

 tage in very many respects, and the proportion of horses 

 dispensed with. These testimonials, however, do not in- 

 clude anything like all the instances of machinery supplied 

 and working in this country. 



Then the Continent, the West Indies, and Australia 

 have become customers ; and if in the south of France the 

 steam plough might effect a saving of two-thirds in outlay 

 while doing doubly better tillage, in our dear-labour colo- 

 nies the sugar-grounds and vineyards will show a still 

 greater profit, the machinery being now able to cope with 

 the obstacles of wild lands, seeing that its powerful sub- 

 soilers poize up stones and crack tree roots, which master 

 the common horse plough. But whatever immense fields 

 are lying open to the steam plough abroad, we are rapidly 

 progressing with its adoption at home ; and should the 

 rotary cultivation, so accordant with theory, never reward 

 the inventors who are seeking It, we are still in a fair way 

 to banish more than a third of, at least, 800,000 farmhorses 

 in Great Britain, \7ith the saved produce of a million and 

 a-half acres {which these hungry teams now consume), 

 added to the eight bushels additional yield on 4,000,000 

 acres of wheat — to say nothing of the augmented production 

 of vegetable food and butcher's meat, from the yet unfore- 

 seen revolution in clay-Land management, and on other soils 

 from the interpolation of more than a single crop in one 

 year, and the entire re-modelling of our system of rota- 

 tions—we may be able before long to feed our population, 

 independent of American prairies, and no longer import 

 supplies equal to a fourth of our harvest. — Times. 



LORD PALMERSTON AT ROMSEY. 



The Eomaey Labourers' Encouragement Association held 

 its anniversary on Dec. 21, 1859, at Komsey, when prizes 

 were awarded for long servitude, ploughing, thatching, and 

 almost every description of agricultural employment. Lord 

 Palmerston, the president of the association, was present, and 

 peraonally distributed the prizes to the successful candidates 

 in the Town-hall. The award having been made, 



Lord Palmerston addressed the labourers as follows : 

 My friends, perhaps you will allow me to address a few words 

 to you, to express the great pleasure which I have derived 

 from having to hand over to so many deserving men and 

 women in this neighbourhood these prizes — prizes which are 

 not intended, I need hardly say, aa rewards, but as tokens and 

 memorials of your good conduct in your several vocations. I 

 need hardly say that they are not rewards, because no man is 

 so foolish as to think that these tokens of good conduct which 

 are given are intended to be substantial rewards for the con- 

 duct on account of which they are bestowed. That is not the 

 principle upon which decorations, and memorials, and tokens 

 are given to mankind for their meritorious conduct. The 

 soldier who hazards his life upon the field of battle, and who 

 has attracted the attention of hia superiors and of his com- 

 rades by distinguished and heroic bravery, is rewarded by a 

 cross, very insignificant in intrinsic value, but which he wears 

 on his breast as a token and a record of that good conduct 

 which has obtained for him that which is a real reward — 

 namely, the esteem and respect of all around him. In the 

 same way in other classes of life, men who perform distin- 

 guished services to the State are rewarded by a little ribbon, 

 which they wear in their button-hole or over their shoulder, 

 but nobody imagines that half a yard or two yards of red or 

 blue ribbon are in themselves intrinsic rewards. They are a 

 token and a record of that good conduct in the life of 

 those on whom they are bestowed which testifies to man- 

 kind that they have deserved well of their country. There- 

 fore, my friends, I am delighted that so many of you 

 have received these tokens of your good conduct in your re- 

 spective vocations ; and I am glad to say these rewards have 

 been given for almost every kind of service which an agricul- 



tural labourer is capable of performing. We have had prizes 

 for ploughmen, for thatchers, for drillmen, for teammen, for 

 the cultivation of gardens, for keeping cottages neat, and for 

 good service in families where labourers have been employed. 

 And, my friends, without saying anything to flatter you, 

 you may have the satisfaction of reflecting that you be- 

 long to a class most deserving of the esteem and respect of 

 their fellow-countrymen, because that labour in which you 

 are employed is at the root and foundation of the wealth 

 and prosperity of a country. It would be a homely saying 

 to tell you a truism — that men cannot work unless they 

 are fed ; and that is the last thing I should deem necessary 

 to inculcate in the state of the tables I now look upon : but 

 it is evident that unless the soil, by the labour of those em- 

 ployed on it, shall produce wherewith to maintain those 

 who are occupied in other employments — manufactures, the 

 mechanical arts, the higher arts, and professions — that unless 

 the soil produces an abundance, it would be in vain that in- 

 dustry and ingenuity should combine to increase the wealth 

 and prosperity of the country. Therefore, my friends, you 

 may walk among your fellow-countrymen with a proud and 

 satisfactory consciousness that you are one of the most useful 

 of the classes of the nation, and that without you the super- 

 structure would fall to the ground. Now, my friends, it has 

 pleased Providence to instil into the minds of men a desire to 

 contribute to their temporal and future well-being, and there 

 are few feelings that are more useful than the love of appro- 

 bation and the fear of censure. But that approbation which 

 men most value on the part of others is the approbation of 

 those who know them — of those who have seen what they 

 have done, or are capable of judging of their merits— of men 

 who come into daily and constant contact with thera^ and yet 

 testify by their bearing the approbation which their conduct 

 has inspired. Well, then, the prizes which have been given 

 to-day arc not only a gratifying memorial to every 

 man when he sees his card stuck up over his 

 cottage fire-place, but they are tokens which, shown publicly 

 to all his neighbourhood, enable him to show that he enjoys 

 the esteem and respect of hia fellow-citizens. The fear of 

 censure is also a deterring action, and I am sure that those 

 who are properly inspired with a due love of approbation will 



