THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



251 



tweuty-one wet days, making a Gfth of the whole year, whilst 

 they are giving you uothiog in return. If we reckon only six 

 acres per day on the average for the 240 days, 1,440 acres will 

 be cultivated, or nearly the whole farm twice over. The 

 experience of the past and the present, I mentioned at the 

 beginning of my subject, should point out the most practical 

 and economical method for future observation and guidance, 

 and I think the position which Mr. Fowler has attained, hav- 

 ing won every prize that he has ccuteuJed for, and working 

 on the principle of the endless rope, together with the small 

 amount required in proportion to the work, and the whole of 

 the power rightly applied by keeping opposite to it, places him 

 very far ahead of his competitors. It might be said that I 

 am interested in giving so decided au opiuioa in his favour ; 

 but I assure you, I speak the honest convictions of my own 

 mind, and have attempted to prove as I have s^one through 

 this subject " the reason why." But I am not singular in this 

 mead of praise to Mr. Fowler. A thorough practical man 

 writes in the Mark Lane Express of January I6th, on the 

 leading features of the Implement departmeut of the Warwick 

 Show : " In comparing the mechanism used this year at War- 

 wick with that employed last year at Chester, we cannot but 

 congratulate Mr. Fowler at the point of comparative mechanical 

 perfection to which— by dint of a persevering labour and an 

 outlay of pecuniary resources worthy of all praise — he has 

 brought his steam ploughing system — a system which, rightly 

 or wrongly, we do not here propose to diacuts — Talpa again ? 

 — accepting the old plough and its peculiar mode of operation 

 as the best, and as the most economical for cultural purposes, 

 seems to present to the farmer many, if not all, of the points 

 desiderated in practice." One word as to the economy of the 

 roundabout system. To those who approve of this method, I 

 think I have shown them that the triangular system given up 

 by Mr. Fowler in 1856, is far pieferable to the square mode 

 of Mr. Smith. If not, I will take a field of 6^ acres square, 

 the furrow will be 8^ chains in length, and the rope required 

 by Mr. Smith will be 907 yards, and likewise running 4 pullies 

 or sheaves. The triangular system, with horizontal drums, 

 will require 771 yards, 136 yards less than Mr. Smith's, and 

 runniug only two pullies. Whilst Mr. Fowler's long-range 

 will do the same work with only 370 yards, 530 less than Mr. 

 Smith's, and running only one sheaf, and that his large anchor. 

 This is of great importance wheu we consider the large amount 

 of power lost by running these pullies, to say nothing of the 

 wear of the rope. Surely I shall not be considered as giving 

 a one-sided opinion, by placing Mr. Fowler in the pre-eminent 

 position that he has attained. In conclusion, I will make a 



few observations on the benefit the couutry will, ia all proba- 

 bility, derive from steam culture. The Royal Agricultural 

 Society has now been in existence 20 years, and it ia really 

 wonderful to look back over this short space and see what has 

 been done for agriculture in the implemeut department of the 

 trade of this nation. But what eye shall be prophetic enough to 

 look 20 years into the future, and say what shall be doing in agri- 

 culture at that period? But it ia possible that by that time the 

 bulk of the soil of our country will be cultivated by steam power, 

 and should this be the case, the horses employed in agriculture, 

 which number iu amouut considerably above 1,500,000, 

 will be reduced to an enormous extent, far above a third, and 

 the food that they would have consumed turned to a profitable 

 account by feeding bullocks and sheep, to the benefit of both 

 the occupier and the consumer, and likewise to meet the wants 

 of our iucreasiug population. But there is a class of meu 

 deeply interested in the cultivation of the soil, which this 

 great change will affect either for the better or the worse. The 

 agricultural labourers — how will it fare with them ? (Hear, 

 hear.) I have no hesitation iu asserting that the more steam 

 engines and machinery are introduced into the agricultural 

 districts, the better it will be for the labouring classc's ; and if 

 this should meet their eye through the newspapers, 1 hope they 

 will take a warning word from me, and prepare themselves, by 

 greater application to their present duties, and, letting their 

 mind accompany their work, to fill those higher places which 

 undoubtedly, at no distant day, they will be called upon to 

 undertake. For the superior work they will be required to 

 give they will have superior pay, and, like the artizans, they 

 will become more frequent customers of the butcher; but I 

 hope, in contradistinction to them, their extra earnings may go 

 to the savings' bank instead of the beer house, to form a nest- 

 egg for a rainy day. Thus will the skilled agricultural 

 labourer rank higher iu the scale of society, the community at 

 large will have cause to rejoice at an increased supply of the 

 necessaries of life, the farmer will have considerably more to 

 sell of that which turns to profit, he will have a good market 

 from the increased means of the agricultural classes, and all 

 will have to be thankful that the steam eugine was placed on 

 four wheels to come to our aid (applause.) 



The meeting was then briefly addressed by Messrs. Chand- 

 ler, Wilks, Franklin, and Hayter, all of whom were replied to 

 by Mr. Williams. 



On the motion of Mr. Chandler, seconded by Mr. Franklin, 

 a vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Williams ; and a similar 

 I compliment was paid to the Chairman, 



OPEN COVENANTS VERSUS LONG LEASES, 



Jolm Grey, of Dilston, is a man who generally 

 speaks with effect. There are, indeed, certain people 

 who are wont to regard him as an especial authority, 

 and to rather play him off against the common 

 run of English farmer. His addresses are prone 

 to be interpreted more as exordiums as to what we 

 should rlo, than any confiinnationof what we are doing. 

 The Southron is told to look at him as a Northern 

 light that is admirably calculated to show the way, 

 and the meetings of the Hexham Farmers' Club have 

 consequently a circulation far beyond the merely local 

 organs, or even the agricultural press. It was only 

 last year that his peaee-and -plenty sketch of the 

 butcher's cart calling every day at the cotter's door 

 was criticised the whole kingdom through. In fact, 

 like Mr. Disraeli when he is talking to the independent 

 electors of Buckinghamshire, or Lord Palmerston lec- 

 turing the labourers at Romscy, Mr. Grey knows very 

 well by this time that it is not merely his " brother 

 members" who will follow him. Many a London 

 paper has given him a column ere now, and may do so 

 again. However unprepared, then, he may bo, or 

 however little inclined to do more than "just to talk 

 in a quiet homely way on certain subjects which inte- 



rest us all," a certain weight is sure to be attached to 

 what he says, By this, too, experience must have 

 made him sufficiently forearmed to stand answerable 

 for all he advances. 



And John Grey is a man really entitled to the posi- 

 tion he holds. By education, taste, and gratifying 

 success in the pursuit, his first sympathies are with the 

 farmer. He is a president at their clubs, a judge at 

 their cattle-shows, and, as far as practical knowledge 

 can go, essentially one of them. But with this he has 

 now for a long period united in a great degree the duties 

 and responsibilities of a landlord. As agent or 

 manager of the Greenwich Hospital Estates, he might, 

 indeed, be supposed rather to side with the owner than 

 the occupier. But it is here that his previous expe- 

 rience comes to his aid. Itisthis thatteacheshim howto 

 hold the balance fairly, and to encourage the good man 

 and control the bad one. With himself a natural dis- 

 position to progi'ess, he feels to the full how this must 

 be brought about. More careful, of course, than an 

 actual owner of the soil might be, he has had to coun- 

 tenance only such a measure of improvement as could 

 *be strictly considered safe. His enterprize has had to be 

 continually curbed by his caution, and no experiment 



