THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



23S 



" We must not go for free trade," says Kent ; and 

 " We will go for free-trade," is the declaration of 

 Sussex. The honourable member, who has to check 

 the too-fond aspirations of his constituents, at 

 once interferes. JVothing can come from his con- 

 ducting them to Downing-street, as yet. Lord 

 Hohnesdale, who was present, said : — " They (the 

 members for the county) must tell the right honourable 

 gentleman that the planters of the two counties were 

 unanimous in their opinion. If they could not say so, 

 what could they do ? What real service could they 

 be ? Ho thought that, before bringing the matter 

 before the notice of Parliament, they should combine 

 in the counties and send a joint memorial to the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer, who had to meet the whole of 

 the financial burthens of the country." It is by no 

 means an agreeable duty to tell our friends unpalatable 

 truths. But such a meeting as that held at Staple- 

 hurst can do little good. If the hop-growers of Kent 

 and Sussex are in earnest — if, as one gentleman said 

 here, they must have some relief, or many of them will 

 be ruined — they must go far more methodically to work. 

 Hop-cultivation is but an exceptional thing, after all. 

 The majority of farmers know but little about it, and 



perhaps care little more. The battle, then, has neces- 

 sarily to be fought by a small band ; and, if even thia 

 comes to internal disruption, with what hopes of suc- 

 cess can the war be carried on? What are the 

 differences between Kent and Sussex, and cannot they 

 be privately arranged ? Nothing tells so badly as any 

 dissension in a Meeting got up for the furtherance of 

 some especial object. It is true there was no actual 

 division amongst those at Staplehurst, but continual 

 reference was made to differences existing elsewhere. 

 Let the Generals of these two forces meet, not neces- 

 sarily in the open field, but rather for some quiet 

 consultation amongst themselves. Let them determine, 

 as the phrase is, what they do mean "to go for." 

 Until then, numerously-attended public meetings will 

 do ^quite as much harm as good. Reasonably argued 

 and strongly put, the hop-growers have a case ; but it 

 depends entirely on themselves how much they make of 

 it. Just now, those who would aid them can do little 

 more than look on. Tlie rest of the country is quite 

 ready to move at the first favourable opening for a 

 modification of both the Malt aud Hop duties. But 

 we must know what we are to ask for. 



STEAM LABOUR. 



[translated FROK the FRENCH OF THE " JOURNAL OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE."] 



Everyone acknowledges that the spade culture is the 

 best, and that the aratory instrument whose action ap- 

 proaches the nearest to that of the spade is the most ad- 

 vantageous to the cultivation of the soil. Well, what 

 does the spade perform ? First, it stirs the soil to a 

 greater depth than the plough, and besides, it does not 

 turn over the soil ; or, at least, that is not the object 

 proposed in working with the spade. Examine the 

 work performed with the spade. It raises up with the 

 blade of the instrument a portion of earth, which the 

 workman most often throws forward without turning it 

 over, by a simple movement of his hand drawn back, 

 and which in falling breaks up ; a few strokes with the 

 flat of the spade finish what the shock alone was not 

 able to accomplish. See, afterwards, with what care he 

 collects the roots of the weeds, and throws them back 

 into the trench, or else leaves them on the surface in 

 small pieces, to be afterwards carried off' and thrown 

 into the dung pit. The gardener well knows that tillage, 

 in order to be good, ought to be exclusive, and that 

 wherever the parasitic plants grow in full freedom, and 

 with their enormous power of multiplication, no harvest 

 can prosper. See, afterwards, how the earth removed 

 by the spade remains loose and spongy. There, no 

 stamping of men and horses, no pressure of the plough 

 soles upon the subsoil. What a contrast this mode of 

 culture presents with that of the plough 1 The mould- 

 board, which seems to have been invented only to form 

 the furrow, that sad and ruinous expedient of wet lands, 

 and which di-ainage renders useless, turns over a band of 

 earth compact and smooth, covering over the injurious 

 herbs and their seeds a few inches only, which at 

 the next ploughing reappear on the surface, to vegetate 

 with more energy than ever. In shallow soils, and 

 where the subsoil, by its mineral nature, cannot be 

 brought to the surface, which occurs above all in the 

 ferruginous lands, only shallow ploughing can be prac- 

 tised ; and the subsoil, which may not be touched, re- 

 mains impermeable. It is therefore natural to conclude 

 that the plough is not the most perfect instrument for 

 the preparation of the soil, and that, the necessity for the 



furrow no longer existing where drainage has rendered 

 the soil permeable, the instrument which traces it be- 

 comes also useless with the furrow itself. 



With an application, so beneficial, of steam to the 

 traction of agricultural instruments across the soil, we 

 may rationally aspire to a more perfect mode of pre- 

 paring our land. This is what Mr. Smith has proposed, 

 and which he has accomplished with such success, that 

 he has a right to be proud of it. 



Mr. Smith's farm contains nearly 40 hectares (or 

 nearly 100 acres), and has only two horses, for which 

 he has scarcely full employment ; formerly he had six. 

 Lord Hatherton, who has adopted Mr. Smith's system, 

 has been enabled by it to save the labour of sixteen 

 horses, with which he has dispensed since he employed 

 the steam plough ; and last year, at an agricultural 

 meeting, he declared that the system had saved him at 

 least 40 per cent, of his expenses of culture. Lastly, at 

 another agricultural meeting, he repeated that assertion, 

 corroborated by another year's experience. At Chester, 

 a distinguished agriculturist, who himself also used Mr. 

 Smith's apparatus, to which he had adapted a locomo- 

 five of eight-horse power which he already possessed, 

 and which still served for the work of the grange, has 

 assured us that he had been enabled to give up two 

 teams of his horses, whose labour had become com- 

 pletely useless to him. 



All this is as conclusive and decisive as possible. 

 Nothing would be more idle or specious than to urge 

 the cost of the machine against its adoption, for in 

 reality it is much cheaper than it appears at first sight. 

 The steam engines exist already on many farms, and 

 those who possess them can easily apply them to culti- 

 vate by steam, according to Mr. Smith's system. They 

 require only the grubbers, the windlass, and the cable 

 of iron wire. Then, with regard to cost, what signifies 

 the expense of the steam engine if, in spite of its com- 

 paratively high price, its use effects a saving in your 

 expenses of 40 per cent ! However small your occupa- 

 tion may be, you may realize in one year the value of 

 yoar engines. 



