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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



all the advantages and profits arising from the system through- 

 out the whole of his term. 



Market Gardens. — Market gardens may he admirably 

 cultivated by this system, three-fourths of the present very 

 costly hand labour being performed by the guideway ma- 

 chinery, with far more benefit to the land, as testified by com- 

 petent judges who have seen it in operation; and those very 

 portions of the labour necessary to be performed by hand, such 

 as planting, cross hoeing, &c , are executed in a far more 

 efficient, systematic, and economic manner. By the avoidance 

 of walking amongst the plants for that purpose, no consolida- 

 tion of the ground or breaking of the young plants can take 

 place ; and the soil is always in a loose and friable state. That 

 most important and now expensive operation to a market 

 gardener, watering, may be done at a small coat and a greater 

 economy of time and water, without the injury attending the 

 use of water carts, or of a pipe and hose, with their unavoid- 

 able injury to young plants. The crops will, from the above 

 reasons, attain a more rapid maturity, and thus an earlier pro- 

 duce, with consequent larger prices, will be obtained by the 

 market gardener. 



A respectable and intelligent market gardener, who has often 

 witnessed my operations, writes in a letter : — " I have inspected 

 the guideway on many occasions, and find it most efficacious. 

 There is not an operetion which this machine will not do, 

 whether it is trenching, hoeing, drilling, or any other nice 

 work; and there is nothing, in my opinion, so agreeable to the 

 eye as work when thus well done ; and with economy— for that 

 is the secret of large profits and small outlay — clays could 

 be rendered comparatively light, and a season got in a few 

 hours. The ' comminutor' cleans the ground of that dreadful 

 couch in one single operation, the land being ever so foul and 

 stiff, leaving the soil a perfect seed-bed, casting the couch on 

 one side, the stones on the other. * * The crops can be 

 carried without injury to the soil, for carrying crops and dis- 

 tributing manure are two operations very difficult to appre- 

 ciate, as there are many who have grown large root crops, and 

 Buffered greatly from the removal of those crops. I have 

 known many instances in market gardening where a season 

 has been lost owing to the weather being wet at the time of 

 carting. I happen to know a market gardener who grew 50 

 tons of mangold wurtzel per acre, and sold it on the ground ; 

 the person who bought it cut up the land into ribbons, so that 

 the gardener lost the next crop. Had the guideway been 

 there the crop would have been carted off, manure at the rate 

 of 40 tons returnel, and the land tilled, and a fine crop of cab- 

 bage growing for early spring. I have often had labourers 

 upon my cultivator, and they always appreciated the ease and 

 correctness with which they could perform operations." 



Rough gardening, in which the cultivation is on an extended 

 scale, for the growth of potatoes, mangold wurtzel, cabbages, 

 and sometimes corn, with its laborious and very costly culture, 

 and iti large cartage, will receive the same advantages. 



BALANCE SHEET (Market Garden.) 



Statement showing the Cost at which Vegetable Produce is now 



raised for the London Markets, and the Cost at which the 



same could be done by the Guideway System for a Holding 



of 50 acres — 



A steam cultivator, like the small one above described, and 

 of 2-horse power, but capable of working for many more hours 

 in the day than horses do, would cost £120, two trucks would 

 cost £40, and all the implements £50 : total £210. The 

 wear and tear of this, at fifteen per cent., would be 128, 6d. 

 per acre. 



In the following table all the operations that are performed 



in the same manner in both systems, and therefore amount to 

 the same cost, are not put down. 



Potatoes and Collards— (Ist Year). 



Cost on the Cost by 



present system, steam 



per acre. per acre. 



£ g. d. £ 8. d. 



Trenching at 3d. per rod 2 10 



Cartage of manure, 40 tons, 



exclusive of filling, &c 10 5 



Hoeings and earthing 10 4 6 



Taking-np 15 0.. 



Collards, digging, 2d. per rod 16 8.. 

 hoeings 10 0.. 



5 

 6 

 2 



£7 1 8 

 Hand operations , 5 



Interest on machinery 



Depreciation, wear and tear of rails 



£1 17 



12 



1 



£3 10 

 Advantage in favour of steam, say £3 lOs. per acre. 



Lettuces and Savoys— (2nd Year\ 



Cost by 

 steam 



Cartage of manure... 



Trenching 



Forking, Id. per rod 

 Treading and raking 



Hoeings 



Savoy digf;ing 



Theee hoeings 



Cost on the 

 present system, 



per acre. per acre, 



£ s. d. £ 8. d. 



... 10 5 



...2 10 



... 14 3 



... 10 2 



... 1 10 4 



...16 6 



...10 2 



£7 10 



Hand operations 



£1 17 



Interest on machinery 12 6 



Depreciation, wear and tear of rails 1 



Advantage in favour of steam, say £4. . 



In market gardening watering is ouly practised with some 

 crops. It is performed sometimes by watering-pots, for the 

 injury to the land is considerable when it is carried out with 

 horses and carts. The value of such an operation, if done to 

 the extent of ten waterings to a crop, may be computed at 

 from 21. to 10/., according to the nature of the plants and the 

 season. It will be a small advantage if this value be taken at 

 3/. per acre. From Al. to 6L per acre is paid by many market 

 gardeners when watering is performed. This is for eight or 

 ten waterings, and is an amount which cculd be done by the 

 steam engine for 10s. an acre. 



The case would then stand thus : — 



Advantage in favour of steam... £3 15 

 Add valne by watering 3 



6 15 



Deduct cost of watering ... 10 



£6 5 

 Leaving 6/. 5b. per acre, equal to 45 per cent, profit on the 

 total capital, for rails (at 102. per acre), and implements, 

 engines, &c. 



Lois Weedon. — The LoisWeedon system of cultivating 

 wheat is also one which could with great facility be carried 

 out by my system. I know that scientific men are divided in 

 opinion upon the practicability of Mr. Smith's cultivation 

 being carried on long without exhausting the land ; but it 



