THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



151 



of the Royal Agricultural Society, which appeared in 

 your Society's Journal, to the published accounts of 

 the system in the professional papers, and to the reports 

 of a meeting at Freemasons' Tavern ; since which time, 

 however, some very important improvements liave been 

 invented, and, amongst others, a new system of guide- 

 ways by which the cost per acre may be considerably 

 reduced, and a new cultivator suitable to small holdings. 



My invention, comprising a system of permanent way 

 which is fixed to the ground, renders me unable to ex- 

 hibit for competition at the annual shows of the Royal 

 and other Agricultural Societies, and the amount of 

 publicity which it would iu consequence obtain, is 

 lost ; but I may truly say, that notwithstanding this, 

 there is a fast growing opinion that the system which 

 I bring before you this evening is the one which, in 

 all respects, best fulfils the wants and expectations of 

 the agricultural community upon the subject of steam- 

 cultivation. 



The great advances which have been made by Messrs. 

 Smith, Fowler, Romaine, Boydell, and others, in 

 ploughing and breaking up the land within the last year 

 or two, have schooled the mind to the possibility of steam 

 being eligible for use in the field, and prepared the agri- 

 culturist to expect a system that shall perform more 

 than one operation. 



Another important change has taken place in the 

 mind of the public, relative to the source from which 

 the profits are to be looked for in steam-cultivation ; 

 this arises from the belief that the commercial advan- 

 tages gained by Mr. Smith and Jilr. Fowler are not so 

 much in the less cost of the operations themselves as in 

 the increase of crops resulting from those operations, 

 and in some collateral economic advantages to which I 

 will refer again ; but it is this better cultivation and 

 consequent larger amount of produce which is the most 

 important consideration to hold in view, and the point 

 in which I maintain that my system has its greatest 

 strength ; and I may say, without fear of contradiction, 

 that there has not been a competent judge, who has seen 

 my operations, who has not given it as his opinion that 

 much larger returns will be obtained by my system. 

 Let us for one moment look at the question of profit by 

 means of produce, and profit by saving on labour, and 

 it will be seen in which direction the most is to be ex- 

 pected ; in the one case let us suppose produce to be 

 increased, merely for illustration, 50 per cent., or from, 

 say, £S to £12, and in the other let us suppose the cost 

 of field-labour to be £^3, and to be decreased in the 

 same proportion, namely, to £2 ; in the one case a 

 profit will be made of £'4, and in the other of £'I. 



Present produce £S, increased to £12. Profit ^^4. 



Present labour £3, reduced to £2. Profit £1. 



There are three ways in which we may expect that 

 steam may prove beneficial to us — first by a saving upon 

 labour. It is in this direction that the endeavours of 

 most inventors have been turned, and it is for that only 

 that the Royal Agricultural Society has held out its pre- 

 miums to inventors. In their prize sheets the words 

 ran thus : " For the best steam-cultivator that shall 

 turn over the soil and be an economic substitute for the 



plough and the spade." The second way is by an in- 

 crease in the produce — and the third both advantages 

 combined. My system is conceived in the last, but its 

 forte lies especially in a much better cultivation with a 

 view to a larger amount of produce. 



I will now, as shortly as I can, describe the system 

 and the large machinery applicable to extensive hold- 

 ings, and from which, as in the case of the manufactory 

 producing goods at a considerably cheaper rate than 

 the cottage loom, we may expect the most important 

 commercial advantages. I will then describe the smaller 

 cultivator, on a perfectly diff"erent construction, and for 

 which I have very much to thank the engineer, Mr. 

 Grafton. Although it will not carry out the operations 

 at so small a cost as the large cultivator, yet, by its 

 being applicable to small holdings, it will enable land 

 to be laid down with this system which before cuuld not 

 be thought suitable for it ; and I will, when describing 

 the prominent subject of the invention, the guideways 

 or rails, invite your attention to a system of rails which 

 was not brought before the public last year, and which 

 will reduce the cost of the system by one-half per acre 

 what it then was calculated at. 



The diagram (Fig. 1)* will convey some idea of the 

 guideway system of steam agriculture. This invention 

 consists in the application of motive power to the culti- 

 vation of the land, by attaching the implements required 

 for the various operations of ploughing, scarifying, sow- 

 ing, hoeing, reaping, or other operations of culture, 

 beneath a travelling-carriage, which moves on rails 

 placed in parallel lines across the fields to be cultivated, 

 by which the implements are always kept from swerv- 

 ing to the right or left of the line of onward motion, 

 and the friction of the machinery is considerably re- 

 duced. 



The gauge or space between the lines should be as wide 

 as possible, consistent with the practical application of 

 the travelling carriage or cultivator, in order to dimin- 

 ish the cost of rails by reducing the number per acre, 

 as also the extent of space occupied by the permanent 

 way. The width between the lines I have in use upon 

 my land at Wandsworth, or upon the piece of ground at 

 Canning-place,Kensington toll-gate, is thirty ; feet but 

 there can be no difficulty in extending it to fifty or more 

 feet. 



At right angles to those rails along the headlands, 

 separate railways are made on a lower level than the 

 former rails, and upon each headland railway a carriage 

 is placed, the top surface of which is on a level with the 

 field rails, and upon this the cultivating machinery 

 moves, and is transferred sideways from one set of rails 

 to another ; or home to the steading, where it may be 

 used for barn operations. Supposing, then, the ground 

 between the two first rails to have been operated upon, 

 the machine is propelled on to the headland carriage, 

 and by it transferred or shunted in the manner that car- 



* This was a view of a farm laid down with guideways, 

 showing the cultivator ploughing ; a number of trucks taking off 

 produce ; the headland rails upon which the cultivator is moved 

 from one set of rails or from one part of the farm to another, 

 and a level crossing at the road, to enable it to communicate 

 with the adjoining fields. 



