THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



153 



finest tilth. Its mechanism and operation I will ex- 

 plain as I proceed. 



The soil having thus been brought to a higher state of 

 cultivation than it is possible to produce even with spade 

 labour, there can be no difficulty in keeping it in that 

 condition; for it will be seen that, by the guideway 

 system of steam culture, the whole weight of the ma- 

 chinery, engines, and implements, rests upon the rails, 

 and that nothing touches the soil except the implements 

 in operation ; no horses will poach the ground with 

 their iron-shod feet ; the foot-prints of the guide and 

 ploughman will no where be seen pugging the clay and 

 treading into a solid clod that which has been reduced to 

 the fineness of garden-mould. 



The destruction of weeds, earthing up, hoeing, and 

 stirring the earth among growing crops, can only be 

 performed at present during the earlier stages of the 

 growth of the plant, and unless executed by hand-labour 

 are always attended with difficulty, and more or less 

 danger, from the impossibility of guiding the implements 

 so as to operate in sufficient proximity to the plant, 

 without running into and destroying some portions of 

 the crop. By this system, however, I am enabled to 

 adjust the implements and cause them to travel at the 

 requisite proximity to the rows at all times during the 

 periods of the growth of the plant. In fact, the hoes 

 can be regulated to such nicety, that the operation may 

 truly be called unerring. 



All other operations, such as harrowing, clod crush- 

 ing, &c., are effected by the different implements being 

 adapted to the same, or to some other cultivator, and 

 these are lifted and lowered, and worked by the ma- 

 chinery, as before described in the case of the ploughs, 

 and may, therefore, be easily understood without fur- 

 ther explanation. Independently of the machinery 

 whit h carries the engines and implements, smaller ones 

 are constructed for the purpose of carrying manure, the 

 produce, water, &c. They are of the same width as the 

 large one, from rail to rail, but much lighter and shorter, 

 and the boxes or cart-bodies used are placed at either 

 end, directly over the wheels, of which there are four, 

 two on each side. These small carriages or trucks are 

 drawn by the cultivator, and, when required, are fur- 

 nished with tanks for the conveyance of water or liquid 

 manure ; and this may be distributed among the grow- 

 ing crops, either independently, or during the time when 

 any of the other operations are in progress. For in- 

 stance, the operations of stirring and distributing water, 

 or liquid manure, to the growing crops, may be per- 

 formed simultaneously by one implement, in the form 

 of a hollow bar or coulter, stirring the ground to a 

 moderate depth, whilst the water, &.C., passes out at the 

 extremity of the bar. By this means the fluid is econo- 

 mized, on account of the evaporation from the surface 

 being prevented ; the soil is not caked, nor are the roots 

 drawn to the surface in search of the moisture, after- 

 wards to be injured by the parching of the ground. 



The next important operation to be noticed is reaping, 

 which is performed by a machine constructed on the 

 principle of Bell's or Dray's, or it may be of any other 

 good reaper. It is attached by suitable stays to main- 



tain it at the proper level, perfectly independent of any 

 support from the ground, and has the necessary gear for 

 communicating the motion to the cutting knives and 

 other parts of the machine by the steam power ; and the 

 depositing of the crop after cutting is effected by a back 

 delivery. 



When manual labour is required for the purpose of 

 weeding, transplanting, or any other light operation, 

 the labourers are carried on to the ground by means of 

 the trucks, upon which they sit or stand while the work 

 is being performed, or while the crop is transferred from 

 the ground to the truck, and by it taken away to the 

 homestead. Thus, it will be perceived that even the 

 injury resulting to the ground by men treading on it is 

 obviated. These trucks may be propelled either by horses 

 or by manual labour if desired. 



The Cost. — Having described genei'ally the system, 

 before proceeding to the facts and results derived from 

 my own cultivators, we may consider the cost of the 

 whole system. 



First. The cost of machinery, implements, and trucks 

 is equal to that of horses and horse implements required 

 for similar work, and the interest per annum may be 

 taken as the same ; but in general I think a less interest 

 would be sufficient. In my case, for instanqp, with the 

 trucks, the travelling being upon a hard smooth surface, 

 there would be considerably less wear and tear than in 

 carts and waggons in a field. 



Secondly, the cost of the rails. The wood system 

 is £\0 per acre, and the brick and angle iron system, 

 is £20 per acre. 



When we consider the much larger sums than £10 or 

 £20 per acre which have been expended upon laud, we 

 shall see that no practical difficulty exists to prevent 

 money rapidly coming in to lay down the rails when the 

 profits are known. The only true commercial way of 

 considering the question is, what will be the returns 

 upon the capital laid out by this system ? Do we not 

 know that land used to cost as much as the above sum 

 frequently in draining? — that .^lO or i^ 15 is paid in 

 marling land ? I have known £20 per acre paid for 

 valuations to an incoming tenant in a suburban farm, 

 and I have heard of larger sums being paid by market- 

 gardeners. Even on the continent (at Milan), irrigation 

 works have cost as much as £40 per English acre. At 

 Edinburgh more than £30 per acre has been paid for 

 the same ; and, according to M. de Lavergne, Mr. Caird, 

 and the Royal Agricultural Journal, upon the Duke of 

 Portland's meadows at Clipstone, as high a sum as £120 

 per acre for irrigation works has been paid. 



Some express astonishment that I want to expend 

 almost as much as the fee simple of the land ? But what, 

 I ask, does this matter, there being no connection be- 

 tween the fee simple of the land and the amount that 

 you may profitably lay out upon it ? Let us look at 

 different modes of cultivation, and beyond, as well as in 

 our own country. In the following table we see the 

 most extraordinary variety. In one place we see the 

 outlay 15 per cent, upon the fee simple, in another 1,500 

 per cent. 



