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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



which he is tamiliar, but, having uo system in theory of 

 art, must necessarily be ignorant of all the innumerable 

 complaints which have not fallen under his personal 

 observation. And our respected practical friends are 

 fast confirming this gem of Roman wisdom, for they see 

 that a man who receives facts, and does not reason upon 

 them, must be peculiarly the victim of quacks. Perhaps 

 it is because we are so exceedingly practical in England 

 that we are so proverbially victimized by humbugs of all 

 shapes. Amongst engineers, that wonderful theorist 

 George Stephenson fought a memorable battle with the 

 practical ones, the antediluvians, and non-progression- 

 ists. It will not be remembered by all of us, but it pro- 

 bably may by some, that the wig makers petitioned 

 George III. to cut off his own hair, and wear a peruke, 

 in order to set the fashion towards wigs. These, surely, 

 were eminently practical men, and so, too, were those 

 who resisted the theory of Mr. Arkwright's machinery, 

 under pretence of throwing the poor out of employ ; 

 they must have been too practical, by far, to look fur- 

 ther than their noses, giving the most practical rendering 

 imaginable to that scripture, " sufficient to the day is 

 the evil thereof." 



But the country has been surveyed in spite of the 

 stones and pitchforks of the practical ones, and travel- 

 lers are whirled from London to Edinburgh in 12 hours; 

 and Arkwright's invention, by finding employment 

 for some two millions instead of some few thousands of 

 people, has aroused such a loud demand for an in- 

 creased supply of food, that we are obliged to resort to 

 our laboratories for the purpose of developing the hid- 

 den resources, or stimulating the flagging energies of 

 the soil. Thus science has enabled us to satisfy the de- 

 mand, and as we are required to increase our production, 

 we must inevitably consult her about the means of 

 doing so. 



And consequently starting from what point we may. 



we are always brought to the same conclusion, that 

 science must be combined with practice ; and that 

 science must come first, and practice last. 



But the difficulty is to accomplish this systematised 

 scientific training. We know it. 



While the agricultural mind is forming, and the foun- 

 dation for our colieges are being laid, what is to be done ? 



There is one course that may be recommended, against 

 which can be urged no insuperable objection — nay, 

 we perceive many positive advantages likely to arise 

 from its adoption. 



There is a College of Chemistry at Hanover Square, 

 London, where any youth who wishes it may be car- 

 ried through a course of analysis ; and with special re- 

 ference to agriculture. There is in the same city a 

 College of Practical Geology ; and there is also a Vete- 

 rinary College, with an extensive hospital. A combined 

 attendance at these three institutions, two or three 

 years, would base a young man thoroughly in such 

 branches as must, in his business career, be of inestima- 

 ble use to him ; and he would have the benefit of ob- 

 taining as extensive and thorough a knowledge as he 

 might wish at any of the three, of the sciences there 

 taught. 



The idea may be novel, but that does not invalidate 

 its merit. When the Agricultural College as now 

 conducted do not work satisfactorily, or while such 

 colleges as those to which we have alluded are being 

 built— as we have no doubt in time they will be — we 

 do not hesitate for a moment to recommend this plan, 

 being convinced that when it is thoroughly executed, and 

 followed up by one or two years' practical acquaintance 

 with the details of farm management, upon the best 

 farms in the kingdoms, there will be produced a race 

 of men better fitted to supply the increasing demand 

 for food than will be produced under the regime at 

 present in force. F. R. S. 



THE PRESENT OF STE AM- C U LT I V ATI O N 



Sir,— The great question of a team-cultivation is being 

 rapidly drawn into closer limita. The first problem— Can the 

 land be well and effectually worked by steam-power ? — has 

 been solved by several different inventors, and that now before 

 us is essentially a farmer's one — Is steam-cultivation prefer- 

 able to horse-cultivation ? Shall we sell off some of our horses 

 and implements, and purchase a steam-engine, with its ploughs, 

 scarifiers, &c. ? Inventors and scientific minds labour to in- 

 duce us to do this, but the farmers, as a body, shrink from the 

 change they scarcely know why. We constantly hear such ex- 

 pressions as these — " A revolution in farming is approaching" 

 — " Steam must come "; and many tell us it is " at hand "; 

 but scarcely any assert that it " has come." There is much 

 wisdom in this caution ; for it is no easy matter to look com- 

 preheaaively at the results of a change of system in all its 

 bearings, to see distinctly those difficulties which are sure to 

 arise in the adaptation to so different a power ; we must be 

 prepared for the prejudices of the men exhibited in wilful and 

 unintentional awkwardness, and for the prejudices of the land 

 too, in the shape of ugly corners and "gores," crooked hedge- 



rows and tiresome hills and dales ; and we must meet these 

 prejudices by careful consideration beforehand, and steady 

 subsequent watchfulness. 



Many farmers are afraid of adopting any one system, lest 

 a more economical one should be discovered soon afterwards ; 

 this, with present prices, is something like a drowning man 

 refusing the aid of an air-belt because he sees a boat in the 

 distance. If we are satisfied that steam cultivation in its pre- 

 sent stage is economical, let us adopt it, and then we shall be 

 in a better position in a few years to receive an improvement. 



My own farm ia, I suppose, about an average one ; there 

 are some tolerably steep hills ; the soil is part gravel and part 

 stiff clay; the fields vary in size from six acres to sixty, all 

 which considerations have led me to pay especial attention to 

 the systems of most general application suited to a tenant- 

 farmer with a lease and an average amount of capital, and this 

 must be pleaded as my excuse for passing with ve;y brief 

 notice one or two plans of great value and iurjenuity. For 

 this reason I must at once dismiss Haiketfa system in spite 

 of its many beauties and advantages ; the day, probably, will 



