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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



Bond's object. He was glad to hear Mr. Bond's decla- 

 ration that he had been enabled to carry out autumn cul- 

 tivation already to the extent of two-thirds of his stubbles. 

 That was, he was convinced, quite an exceptional case, 

 and he must have had a large amount of horse power to 

 have done it. (Hear, hear.) He would appeal to the 

 other farmers present whether they had been enabled 

 to succeed to the extent of one-third, or any thing like 

 it. (Hear, hear.) All admitted the practical bene- 

 fits of autumn cultivation, and for years they had been 

 deploring the want of adequate power to carry it out. 

 The portable steam engine would, he believed, be the 

 means of supplying the deficiency. Autumn cultivation 

 ought, in his opinion, to be commenced immediately 

 after harvest, one hour's sun being of more value at that 

 period than a whole day's sun later in the year. The 

 earlier such cultivation was begun the more effectual 

 would it be. Hee could not say much from experience 

 with regard to the effects of autumn cultivation ; for, 

 though he had carried it out as far as he had been able, 

 like his brother farmers he had been labouring under 

 the disadvantage of not having sufficient power at his 

 command ; but it was well known that the weeds were 

 more easily extracted at that period, than later in the 

 year, or the next season, and the land would be ready 

 either for vetches, or for turnips in the spring. They 

 would steal a march, as it were, in agriculture, if they 

 could bring the thing practically to bear. If by means 

 of a simple implement and a steam engine, driven at a 

 cost of 4s. per day, or of two implements involving a 

 cost of 8s., with five men, a boy and a horse, they 

 could cultivate 10 or 12 acres per day, which he as- 

 serted could be done next autumn— if that quantity 

 of land could be cultivated in one day without the 

 plough, which, as had been observed that evening, was 

 not adapted to the case ; if, by using the cultivator, 

 they could accomplish so much work, and at the same 

 time avoid the evil that sittended the plough, of burying 

 the weeds — the seeds of the summer ripening in the 

 ground — they would, he repeated, steal a march in agri- 

 culture, and the results would be most beneficial to all. 

 (Hear, hear.) So long as the curse rested on the land, 

 *' Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth,'' so long 

 would the seeds of weeds buried in the ground spring up 

 in the succeeding summer. They ought, therefore, to 

 germinate and be destroyed before winter. Such was 

 his idea of autumn cultivation. The plough had hitherto 

 been generally relied upon. If there were any twitch, it 

 was ploughed in, and then, the next operation was, it 

 was ploughed out again ; whereas it ought to be brought 

 to the surface at once, and extinguished. He had be- 

 stowed five years' hard study on this subject, together 

 with the steam culvation, and had moreover spent ^2,000 

 in the endeavour to carry his ideas into effect, and he 

 thought he might say that he had now something like a 

 practical insight into the matter. Mr. Bond, in speak- 

 ing of his method of autumn cultivation, said he used 

 one of Biddle's scarifiers, with two sets of horses, six 

 horses from 6 till 1, and six more till night, so that 

 twelve horses were employed, and I quite agree with 

 him that, at that period, the whole of the day should be 



made the most of. Now, it should be borne in mind that 

 the steam engine never got tired ; and he ventured to say 

 that, with an exchange of men and two horses, his own 

 implement would cultivate 15 acres per day, between 

 sunrise and sunset ; not skimming the land, but really 

 cultivating it. He despised a skimming system which 

 left half the weeds in the land to produce another crop. 

 (Hear, hear.) They must go three, four, or five inches 

 deep, in order to bring the root weeds to the surface ; 

 moreover, the deeper they went the more atmospheric 

 air would get underneath the seeds, and the quicker they 

 would germinate. The question under discussion re- 

 solved itself into this — had they power to carry on 

 autumn cultivation ? He believed all present would 

 agree with him that they had not; and the consequence 

 was that it was never done. He stood there however to 

 assert, as a practical man, that past autumn cultivation 

 bore scarcely any relation to the future ; the latter opened 

 up, as it were, an entirely new view to agriculturists, 

 and presented fresh prospects of advancement. On Sa- 

 turday last his cultivator was doing at the rate of 10 

 acres a day, at a cost to himself, who found the im- 

 plement, of 2s. per acre, cultivating his strong clay 

 land six inches deep. His neijihbours were quite 

 astonished at such a result, having long predicted 

 his downfall ; they said they never could have imagined 

 such an achievement. He quite concurred in the re- 

 marks of Mr. Bond with regard to the over-feeding of 

 cattle. The system of stuffing animals with oilcake 

 had been carried to an extent which was altogether 

 opposed to nature. Mr. Williams then narrated an 

 instance, as told to him, in which some pigs fed to 

 some extent on cinders (laughter), did better than some 

 other pigs in the next sty which had not received any 

 such diet; and he said he attributed the benefit to the 

 tendency of the cinders to correct the evil effects of ex- 

 cessive food of too heavy a nature. The digestive organs 

 were, he conceived, over-charged, and their proper 

 action was thus restored. Strange as this statement 

 might appear, it was borne out by actual experiment in 

 his own neighbourhood. He could say much more on 

 the subject of steam cultivation, such as a self-acting 

 supply of water, hedge rows to be grubbed, pits filled 

 in, land exchanged between neighbours (Hear, hear), 

 but he would not now further intrude upon their time, 

 as he intended to publish a little pamphlet for Is., for 

 the information of those who wished to know what might 

 be done by means of steam cultivation ; when he would 

 be able to say, as Abernethy said to his patients, " Read 

 my book" (laughter). 



Mr. Tatam (of Moultan, Spalding) wished to put one 

 or two questions to Mr. Bond. Mr. Bond had alluded 

 to April-sowing of mangold-wurzel and Swede turnips. 

 He (Mr. Tatam) lived in a county (Lincoln) in which 

 both were cultivated to almost as great an extent, and 

 perhaps as judiciously, as in any county in England, with 

 one exception, that exception being Norfolk. He had 

 found, from observation, that a very large proportion of 

 mangold-wurzel roots and Swede turnips would run to 

 seed, if sown in April ; that there was often great waste ; 

 and that you might sow too early as well as too late. 



