224 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



that once yielded one reluctant crop of grass per year, 

 and now furnish five or six, and give a good bite for 

 cattle late into the winter subsequently. 



In a letter which appeared in the Times last week, it 

 was stated that the land did not require manure, but 

 only deep cultivation, to restore its fertility. This may 

 be trup to some extent ; and I am not one — believing as 

 I do in the excellence of the principle introduced by the 

 Rev. Mr. Smith, of Lois Weedon — to underrate the 

 value of deep digging and a free and earnest appeal to 

 the subsoil for stout straw and full ears ; but still one of 

 the great drawbacks to that system lies in the fact that 

 it requires more hands than the old one, and, as our 

 rural population is rushing to the great urban centres, 

 this lack of labour is becoming a grave difficulty. Fur- 

 thermore, the comminution and aeration of soil may do 

 capitally for cereal and root crops, but it certainly is not 

 to be adopted with our pastures, which alone, perhaps, 

 would dispose of as much liquid manure by irrigation 

 as we could supply from all our towns. 



Another objtction raised to the application of sewage 

 is to its smell ; but those who u^e the sewage from 

 towns, and those who live in neighbourhoods where it is 

 used, state that this objection has no foundation. Ma- 



nure in a solid state does emit an odour prejudicial to 

 human life, but water is a great deodoriser. The smell 

 from the sewage discharged from Fleet Ditch sewer, 

 the largest in the world, is not so offensive as the stench 

 from one very small stagnant cesspool. 



I look in vain upon every side for a valid objection to 

 this great and de&irable project, and more than ever agree 

 with Lord Palmerston, who said at Lewes, in 1851 — 

 " The dirt of our towns ought to be laid upon our fields ; 

 and if there could be such a reciprocal community of in- 

 terests between the country and the towns, that the 

 country should purify the towns and the towns should 

 fertilize the country, I am quite disposed to think that 

 the British farmer would care less than he does about 

 Peruvian guano.'' 



Instead of seeking investment for their money in 

 foreign ventures, and in shoring up the tottering thrones 

 of despotism abroad, our capitalists — in turning atten- 

 tion to this great work of applying the sewage of 

 London and our towns to agricultural purposes — would, 

 beyond the satisfaction of receiving good dividends, feel 

 that they were conferring a great boon upon the entire 

 community. Howard Reed. 



THE ECONOMY OF THE STEAM PLOUGH. 



On the authority of a recent publication, the ori-jin 

 of that wonderful germinating discovery, the possibi- 

 lity of spinnin>; cotton by a machine, was on this wise : — 

 A number of Blackburn people greeted the evening ar- 

 rival of a travelling chapman with his string of pack- 

 horses from London, inquiring "the news," and among 

 other things, '' if the King were doing anything to 

 relieve poor weavers ? " The best thing he could do," 

 said the man of commerce, " would be to make the 

 lasses spin more yarn." "Then he must make the 

 ■wheels spin two threads at once," replied a gallant 

 weaver; to which another responded "Nay, man, 

 that's nonsense ; the King nor all the Parliament canna 

 do that." A thoughtful man stood among the com- 

 pany, and presently united with the chapman and others 

 in a social pipe and glass at a public-house. Here, in 

 their fun, they dare the smart young chapman to ob- 

 tain from a bonny lassie, who sat spinning in a cosy 

 corner, a favour to which he could not be entitled in the 

 entire absence of a mistleoe ; a challenge at once result- 

 ing in a noisy commotion, and, among other things, an 

 overturned spinning-wheel. James Hargreaves, think- 

 ing of the " two-threads at once," sees that though the 

 wheel is upset, it still keeps- revolving, the spindle being 

 now vertical instead of horizontal ; and thereupon he 

 draws the roving of wool towards him, the rotating spin- 

 dle twisting it into a thread. In a brown study, he went 

 home; with a burnt stick, sketched upon the floor of 

 his cottage the rough figure of a machine, in which was 

 a contrivance for holding the rovings as the finger and 

 thumb do, this contrivance also travelling backwards 

 on wheels, so that, say eight threads might be spun at 

 once by as many upright spindles, driven by bands 

 from a horizontal wheel. And this invention he named 

 after his wife, so noted for her superior accomplish- 

 ment as to be called " Spinning Jenny." The marvel- 

 lous development of the cotton manufacture of Great 

 Britain, the consequent multiplying of population, 

 spread of great cities, increase of commerce, created 

 home market for agricultural produce, &c., &c., origi- 

 nated by this simple mechanical invention, is too volu- 

 minous a topic for us to dwell upon. But all has come 

 to pass in the short period of ninety-three years. Mk 



When the history of modern agriculture shall come 

 to be written in a future age, we have no doubt that 

 humble and simple experiments which have been made 

 not long ago, in attempting the problem of tilling land 

 by a machine actuated by a motive power which made 

 the "jenny'' such a wonder-working agent, will bo 

 chronicled with a similar interest. "VVe have on former 

 occasions adduced our share of facts and materials for 

 such reminiscences, and shall now employ the above 

 narrative merely as an illustration. The immediate 

 " saving of labour" was so great and desirous that the 

 machine proved an immediate success. AVeavers no 

 longer had to loiter in idleness because waiting for 

 more yarn which the hand-wheels could not supply in 

 anything like the quantity even at that time in demand. 

 Now, mark this expression, "saving of labour." The 

 spinners worked as industriously as before ; how then 

 can their labour be said to have been " saved" ? The 

 fact is, that the amount of labour devoted to spinning 

 increased after the introduction of the machine ; and 

 has gone on increasing to a most enormous extent, 

 after the water-wheel and the steam-engine were applied 

 to " save'' the very labour of the hands which turned 

 the crank of the "jenny." More labour, increased 

 employment, have been the result, instead of diminished 

 labour. But the "saving" has been, that the same 

 amount of toil formerly wasted in forming one thread 

 now economizes itself by producing an immensely 

 greater number of threads in the same time. Hence, 

 " saving of labour" may often mean "increased 

 economy of production." Mill-power introduced into 

 any manufacture does not necessarily lessen the 

 amount of human labour engaged but renders it more 

 profitable by enabling it to produce more largely and 

 cheaply. Well, we cannot expect the warm-hearted 

 steam-boiler, with its reciprocating piston-rod and 

 rapid fly-wheel, to work away for us in fai'm operations 

 upon any difierent terms to those it imposes in other 

 handicrafts. So don't let the farmer deceive himself 

 with the idea that his irksome item of weekly pay- 

 ments on account of labour, and the egregious expense 

 of having to give up such a great proportion of his 

 land and its produce to the feeding of his all-swallowing 



