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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



•will come to te reflected on an institution itself. But , 

 the Oxford Club has from the first done wisely in this 

 way. It started under the auspices of Mr. Roberts, of 

 Waterperry, one of the most straightforward and 

 worthy specimens of the English yeonian we ever had 

 the good fortune to meet, and who has a fair share with 

 Mr. Thomson in the well-merited honours of this occa- 

 sion. The attendance here was quite in character. In 

 the hundred-and-fifty who sat down to dinner there 

 •was a county magistrate, Mr. Morrell, in the chair, a 

 city member, Mr. Langston, by his side, one clergy- 

 man, the Mayor, with two or three of the citizens of 

 Oxford, and then the great body of agriculturists and 

 brother-farmers. This company alone would go to 

 show how genuine and hearty was the feeling with 

 which the proposition had been received. 



"We look upon the Oxford Club in many respects as 

 an example for others. Its discussion -subjects are 

 generally not only ably considered, but equally well 

 timed. It has a really working-committee, backed by 



a very efficient secretary, and it is so gaining a gra- 

 dually-increasing hold on the county. But with all 

 these advantages it has one very weak place. The Club 

 has actually no home. Its members are simply a body 

 of peripatetic philosophers wandering up and down the 

 streets of the city, and jostling the gownsmen for side 

 and place. The meetings arc held here, there, and 

 everywhere ; and we wore just in time to hear the 

 General Meeting declare it was best "to let well alone." 

 Surely the Society has now a status above this, and 

 even a room or two for the especial use of the members 

 should not be altogether beyond its ambition. There 

 are local Ciubs, such, for instance, as the Newcastle, 

 which already have the accommodation ; while, to show 

 what others think of it, we were told by a Berkshire 

 man, as we travelled down, that " the worst of it was 

 the Club went about from one public-house to another." 

 In these days the cause of agriculture should rise 

 superior to the concomitant attractions of a pipe and a 

 glass. 



THE INTRODUCTION OF STEAM-POWER INTO COMMON FARM ERACTICE. 



The chief topic now under discussion amongst the 

 farming community is the modern introduction of steam 

 power into ordinary farm practice ; and the advocates of 

 the diflferent systems of culture, or application of the 

 power, are alike equally sanguine as to the important 

 change and ultimate benefits. That this gigantic power 

 will be so modified, so simplified in its general charac- | 

 ter, as to become applicable to the common routine 

 of modern farm practice, I do not entertain a doubt — it 

 is merely the work of time and engineering and me- 

 chanical skill. 



I shall not attempt to compare the various systems 

 of cultivation, or even allude to them further than to 

 ehow what may be the probable alterations in the 

 management of those farms where this new system will j 

 be introduced ; and the power of steam is adopted in 

 lieu of horse and manual power whenever it can be 

 found practically beneficial, ily own impression is that 

 the order of culture will be so surprisingly improved, 

 that the enhanced produce it will achieve will be so 

 considerable, that the inducements continually opening 

 out before the steam-power farmer, of still greater re- 

 Bults, will so satisfy him, that he will be readily dis- 

 posed to employ both more horse and more manual 

 labour, rather than displace either one or the other — 

 in fact he will be glad to retain every horse and 

 man he now employs, in addition to the power of 

 steam. 



Take an arable farm of 350 acres, of medium quality 

 and fair depth of soil — a useful loamy soil ; begin your 

 steam cultivation immediately after harvest, or ru.tLer 

 during harvest, or so soon as the implement can be put 

 to work after the crop is reaped. The v^hole breadth of 

 the farm under corn cropping would be wonderfully 

 advantaged by being broken up and deeply cultivated 

 during the closing months of autumn. The power of 



steam, in addition to the team labour, could alone 

 achieve this grand desideratum. Here, then, is profita- 

 ble employment for every horse and man, which I will call 

 occasion number one. 



Then comes the wheat-seeding, and occasional 

 labour in various ways. The farmer requires, first, 

 seed-wheat; secondly, a customary lot for sale to 

 replenish his purse after an expensive harvest, and 

 to meet sundry payments : these must be provided for. 

 The teams are therefore engaged in the several pro- 

 cesses of business, while the steamer is thrashing the 

 wheat. The team labour will consist of the harrowings 

 and the scarifyings of the deeply broken- up soil effected 

 by the steam-plough and cultivator, the cartage of col- 

 lected weeds and rubbish, the manuring of the land in- 

 tended for wheat, the preparation of the seed-bed for 

 the wheat-sowing, and the subsequent completion of the 

 wheat seeding. At the same time also come in season 

 the taking up of the potato crop, the securing the man- 

 gold crop, and all other root crops not generally grown ; 

 besides many collateral and necessary jobs, such as the 

 marketing and the delivery of corn, the obtaining sup- 

 plies of manure, the carting of field stacks and stubble 

 to the fold-yards for winter fodder and lairage : these 

 and similar engagements employ much team labour. 

 This I shall call occasion number two. 



If there is during the year to be a dormant 



time, it will be during the severer part of the 



winter months ; but it will be fouud that the new and 



I novel courses of culture incident to the adoption of 



j steam-power will provide much extra work for the 



1 teams and labourers. For instance, all lands requiring 



subsoil drainage must be so drained ; this of course 



involves cartage to a considerable extent. Then all 



lands having high-backed ridges will require levelling ; 



, all borders and ditch banks, &c., will require carting 



