Ui 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



each end of the frame work directly over the wheels. 

 Thirdly, to the lower part of this platform are attached 

 rhe implements of husbandry of every kind, as they 

 are severally required for the cultivation of the soil, 

 such as ploughing, subsoiling, grubbing, scarifying, 

 harrowing, rolling, drilling, dibbling, hoeing, hand- 

 weeding, watering, distributing liquid manure, mow- 

 ing, reaping, &c., all of which it professes to per- 

 form in the most exact and efficient manner. Any one 

 who understands the inevitable precision which a rail- 

 way gives to the movement of whatever machine or 

 carriage is propelled upon it, will be able to judge for 

 himself how far a plough or any other implement of 

 husbandry, when fixed to the platform, will realize this 

 important exactness. The fact is, when once fixed, the 

 plough or other implement may break, but it cannot 

 otherwise deviate from the line marked out by its connec- 

 tion with the rails on each side. This is correct in the case 

 of all the implements of culture ; and Mr. Halkett 

 can hoe within half-an-inch of a row of plants without 

 touching them. Fourthly, boxes or carriages are placed, 

 when required, upon the framework of the machine, for 

 the conveyance of manure, marl, clay, &c., on to the 

 land; and for carting the produce, whether roots or 

 corn, off it to the homestead, or wherever it is required 

 to stack them. I ought to state, that at the headland 

 are placed rails, at right angles with the others, and on 

 these is a carriage placed on a level with them, so that 

 on arriving at the headland, the framework runs at once 

 upon this carriage, and is, by it, shunted to the next line 

 of rails; or it may be taken to another field, or home 

 to the farmyard, by means of rails laid down for that 

 purpose. The whole of the operations are performed 

 without the foot of man or beast, or the weight of any 

 part of the apparatus employed, pressing upon the soil, 

 which is left by them in a state of tilth equal to that of 

 a market garden. 



I feel that I have given in the above sketch a very 

 inadequate description of the Guideway system ; but 

 such as it is, it will convey to the minds of your readers 

 a tolerable idea of the way in which Mr. Halkett pro- 

 fesses to cultivate the land. It is impossible in the 

 compass of a letter to enumerate all the advantages held 

 out by the patentee ; nor can any description give so 

 good and clear an idea of its working as a visit to Mr. 

 Halkett's establishments, either at Wandsworth or Ken- 

 sington, where it may be seen in operation at any time. 

 Many gentlemen, both scientific and agricultural, have 

 visited them ; and it is due to Mr. Halkett to state that 

 some who went thither strongly prejudiced against the 

 system were fully convinced before they came away of 

 its entire practicability and economic character. 



I shall next consider the pecuniary part of the ques- 

 tion, which was the chief objection urged against the 

 system at the meeting on Wednesday evening. First, 

 as to the rails. Mr. Halkett states that he is ready to 

 lay down a farm with rails, at 50 feet intervals, if of 

 wood creosoied at iflO, and if of iron at i,'20 per acre. 

 This certainly appears at first sight to be a heavy outlay, 

 and to a tenant farmer, unless under a long lease or 

 tenant-right covenants, an insuperable objection to the 



system. On this account it was looked upon, by those 

 present, rather as a landlord's than a tenant's question. 

 This, however, does not affect the ultimate result to 

 both landlord and tenant in regard to the profitableness 

 of the system ; and when the large saving in the cost of 

 cultivation and in the increase of crops is taken into ac- 

 count, the objection will appear Isss formidable, espe- 

 cially in a country in which, in a very few years, 

 ,£400,000,000 sterling have been expended in effecting 

 an entire change in the locomotive habits of the people, 

 by which they can now travel at four times the speed, and 

 at one-third the expense they formerly did. In drain- 

 age too, from i?10 to £lo per acre is fearlessly expended 

 by tenant farmers at the commencement of a 21 years' 

 lease, at the end of which he estimates that it will have 

 paid him double that outlay ; or if the landlord has 

 drained, the tenant has no objection to paying him an 

 additional rent adequate to the repayment of the prin- 

 cipal in the period of the lease. I could instance many 

 similar cases, in which a large outlay of capital on appa- 

 rently inadequate objects has proved profitable to all 

 parties concerned. The fact is, the farmer must 

 in future come to look upon the farm as a 

 manufactory, or at least with the eye of a manufacturer, 

 and its various operations as capable of being conducted 

 upon mechanical and economic principles as a cotton or 

 any other textile manufactory. Enlarged ideas require 

 to be disseminated amongst both landlords and tenants 

 on this subject. They must learn that frugality is not 

 economy, but that the more money is judiciously ex- 

 pended on the land the greater will be the produce and 

 profit. I have long been convinced that when the farm- 

 ers of England become fully indoctrinated with really 

 economic principles, and carry them out in their prac- 

 tice, no foreign nation will be able to compete with them 

 in the price of corn, any more than they now can in that 

 of cotton, woollen, and silk fabrics. Many of your 

 readers will think me " a fast young man" in these mat- 

 ters; but I assure them I am what I have always styled 

 myself, an " Old Norfolk Farmer," who for nearly 

 three-quarters of a century has watched the progress of 

 agriculture, and witnessed changes which are fast tend- 

 ing to the result I have here foreshadowed. But I must 

 beg pardon for this digression, and return to Mr. Hal- 

 kett. The following are the items of his balance-sheet, 

 showing the economic difference between the present, and 

 his, system of culture. 



Suppose a tenant hires 1,000 acres of land on a lease 

 of 21 years, to be laid down with wood rails, at jglO 

 per acre. Whether the landlord expends the money or 

 the tenant, the interest on capital and depreciation in 

 in value is estimated at 10 per cent., which is £l,000 

 per annum, or £'21,000 for the whole term. If we 

 reckon the simple interest at 4 per cent., it gives 

 £400 per year, or an aggregate of £8,400 for the 

 whole term, leaving £12,600 for repairs and depre- 

 ciation. 



With respect to the machinery and implements re- 

 quired for the new system, Mr. Halkett sets them 

 against the present outlay for horses, waggons, carts, 

 ploughs, &c., &c., which he considers amount to fully 



