180 



THE FARiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE STEAM PLOUGH 



A good climate and a good soil will cot always give good 

 crop:!, unless the culture be also good. As for our English 

 climate, we must take it as it is. If it is to ba moriified by 

 exteusive drainage auii by the gradual growth of newly-planted 

 forests, the process will be a long one at the best. As for 

 Boil, we have almost all varietiea, many of which we might 

 wiab were better than they are. When we come to consider 

 the purpose as^d nature of soiii*, we perceive mauy ways in 

 which their character may be iaiproved. One great purpose 

 of ihe soil IS that of a fouiidaiicn in which plants may fix 

 their roots, without whitli support there could be no useful 

 grjAih. It is not every soil, however, that will meet even 

 tins C"iidit!ou, ailhoiigh thtre aie very few which will not do 

 80 ait'-r more or leas mechauicil treatment. Another great 

 purpose of tne soil is the supply of certain mineral elements 

 esdeutiai to the growth and maturity of plants. Wheat would 

 not 8 and, for insiabce, but for tiie tirm enamel which protects 

 its &ta.k. and which, when divided eo as to expose a sharp 

 ed^e, will cut almost like a Luife. This enamel is chiefly 

 silica, which must have existed in the soil on which the stalk 

 was ^rown, aud if the stalk be burnt all the silica will be 

 foil id m the ashy residuum — ihe ashes left, after burning a 

 pl«nt containing all the mineral elements which originally left 

 the soil to enter into ihe structure of that plant. It is in the 

 stuily o( soils — and the stuiiy is not diflScnlt — that ggricui- 

 turiits may know the exdct nature of their land, and, with 

 proper regard to clima'e, what it can (;row and wh»t it cannot 

 grow. Tney can learn in what elements it is deficient, aud 

 are ofleu eiiab e i, by a Irtls sanding of clay soils, or by clay- 

 ing lijjht aoils, a< well as by luaiiuniiK, to bring very refrac- 

 tory IdU'l into protitahle ciil ivati in. F.irmers have made vast 

 pro;;re3s in k' ovicjge of this kind, alttiougn there was a time, 

 and it was n»t so very lon;r ago either, when to have pro- 

 poiju led the ^iulp!e-t theorus ot the nature of the soil would 

 have brought ridcule upon the propomider. At the pre- 

 sent time, however, whil-t there is no question of the value of 

 maunre?, and no want of as^idury on tt^e part of Baron Lie- 

 big and Mr. Mechi iu urging their necessity, we are inclined 

 to bclifve that the modern school of agriculture is entsiling 

 needle.-s expense upo;i our farmers, wh >, in their passion for 

 siiip'^aies, plio^ptiates, and fiied amni' ma, are sendiua; aho- 

 geitier loo lu.iCii money to Perd. We believe that a proper 

 niecnunical treatinent of our day soiU will do tnore to increase 

 our ua ioi.al pro niciiou than all the guano of the Chircha 

 Islands can ever aceoii-plish. V'hat i-t vs anted is the hreak- 

 ii g and t loroufjh c iinmiTiution of our heavy lauds to a depth 

 01 iroin 18 111. to 2 U,, wiien they will absorb ammosiia from 

 the atuiuaphere, a. (1 if anylhii g more is needed it is cheaper 

 to procure sund than i^uaino, wioist as for sulphates aiid phos- 

 phates we must learii to collect and apply our town sewage. 

 Polities are grown upon the b'.rien sands !>f Ayrshire, with 

 iij other nirnment tro(u thii soil than that supplied by a 

 dressinj; [ot the liquid sewage of Glasgow. Our cla3's, which 

 are !;eiierally much deeper than any cultivation is hkelj to 

 exten.t, contain unknown stores of fertilizing elements, the 

 va'iie of which has Oeea provei on the Tweeddale estate aud 

 at Lois Wesdoa and Woolston, as well as on many farms in 

 other parts ot t&e kmgdom. 



Hty wliiit we may of steam-plouffhing, its great value is la 

 the op[ioilunify w^.ich it allords cf cpeni;;g the soil to a depth 

 altog. ther unknown i.i the agriculture of the pasc. The power 

 of frx^riiug a .iraught of 25 cwt., at 3^ miles an hour (some 

 2f} " eHective" borsc power), is one which is not merely a 

 matter ^f increased acreage, nor does the comparison end with 

 that of the cost of coai and wire rope on the one baud, and of 

 feed and attendance on the otlier. For, more than this view 

 discloses, the steara-plough does what the horse-plough can 

 never do, limited as it practically is to 6 i:i. furrows, in heavy 

 land. Vie do not think that farmers have yet got bejond 

 the comparison of the two tysiems by the superficial area of 

 Work done and the outlay required iu a day's ploughing. It 



is true that this contrast is already sufficient to decide the 

 question in favour of steam, but the aovantages of steam power 

 are not even then eo great as to induce every tenant of a mo- 

 derate or even a large holding to put his hand iu his pocket for 

 from £500 to £8U0, required lor an engine and tackle. In 

 tim», however, he will come to understand that the steam- 

 plough will bring up something a foot down iu the clay wt:ich 

 13 quite as good as guano — sud he will then discover that the 

 soil which has in some placts been cropped for neaily a 

 thousand years without '' fertilisers" is good for another thou- 

 sand if it be brought to daylight, and it the millions ot potea 

 and interstitial spaces — which are nature's own liings, and 

 which must exist iu some shape wherever there is growth — be 

 allowed to breathe the air, the vital food of plant?, charged 

 with the carbonic acid and ammonia which, with water 

 aud a small quantity of incrgan.c matter from the soil, make 

 up the whole substauce of vegetable growths. To a plain far- 

 mer, this must be translated as meaning that his heavy lands 

 will feed all the crops which can stand upon them, providsd 

 the soil be thrown open, bo as to allow the air, the rain, and 

 the roots to come together, deep below the surface. Perhaps 

 no soil on the globe ivould he iicher than one composed of the 

 clays and sands of this island, mixed, and thoruoghly pul- 

 verized afoot deep. Iu soils which ate already identical with 

 what such mixture afid tieatmeut vould produce, eight and 

 nine quarters of wheat have been raised on the a're ; aud, it 

 18 only a simple calculation which proves to us that if the 

 best husbandry were extended over the whole area now under 

 cultivation in Great Britain, our giaiii ernps, and our pro- 

 fluction of beef and mutton would be doubled. Sometliing 

 like 50,000-^:orlse power of agricultural engines are already at 

 "ork ill the kingdom ; but their employment in the barn-yard 

 bears iio comparison in productive value to that which would 

 atttnd their removal to the fitld. 



Notwithstanding the independence and exclusivenesa of the 

 landed inte est, we believe that agriculture is yet to be car- 

 ried on extensively by joint-stock enterprise, like any other 

 bianch of production in which capital, machinery, and di- 

 vision cf labour are requisite. Whilst we have old-school 

 farming ou the one baud, and amateur farming on the other, 

 we think the very 1 eat results would be attained by the in- 

 tr duc'iou of associated captia', assisted by the highest re- 

 sources of science aud art, auri directed solely to commercial 

 profit. Farming is not an obscure art : the sciences, too, of 

 w hich it involves the knowledge, are already pi pular. In the 

 United States — the inhnbitants of which country believe it to 

 be the naturcl granary of the world — large sums of capital 

 have been withdrawn from trade, and espet-ially from manu- 

 factures, aud invented in extensive agricultural undertakii'gs. 

 la 1855, when the Crimean war was ragii'g, and when the 

 average price of wheat iu Ecgla;;d was 81b. per quarter, a 

 large amount of American capital was diverted from its accus- 

 tomed channels into exteusive prairie farming; and, although 

 the stimulant of high prices was in a comparatively short time 

 removed, the influence of this movement was altogether bene- 

 ficial, both to the individuals engaged in it and to the country 

 at large. In England, where capital is more abundant, whe:e 

 the risk is less, and where our agriculture awaits only ener- 

 getic aud organised maoagement, there is even now as great 

 au ;i;di;cenient So the undertakinjs of which we speak. No 

 one can estimate the changes to which such a course would 

 lead. More than one million horse-power of steam enjiines, 

 and more than ten mill ona in value of improved agricultural 

 machinery might then, as we believe, be profitably employed. 

 Our agricultural engineers, who have already associated them- 

 selves together for the sale of their machinery, might, we 

 have no doubt, advantageously go a step further, and effect 

 the organisation of an agricultural company, " limited," to 

 become, a< we believe it would, the parent of innumerable pro- 

 fitable undertakings of the same character. — The Engineer. 



