388 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



might wait until a few harvests shall have actually 

 measured the additional yield for us, in the bushel and 

 the weighing-machine, and meanwhile confine our 

 estimates to the proved economy of performance. But 

 simply to chronicle realized results is not the whole of 

 our duty. Let us east a glance a-head, and, by the help 

 of sound reasoning from admitted facts, proclaim the ap- 

 proach of changes in form practice which we may descry 

 upon the horizon of the future. No advance is likely to 

 be made by men whose eyes are concentrated upon the 

 present, to the entire neglect of possible and probable 

 improvements; while undoubtedly great things are to 

 be looked for as the consequence of a general leeling of 

 expectancy and a duo comprehension of the capabilities 

 lurkinjT in means which may bo as yet comparatively 

 new and undeveloped among us. 



In steam culture, every one, of course, perceives the 

 benetit to the farmer of having work done at a lower 

 cost. Many people can also understand that a great 

 national advantage may also accrue. The work which 

 can be placed in the hands of the steam engine com- 

 prises the ploughing of furrow- slices, and the breaking 

 up (without turning over slices), which is now coming 

 into favour, just as it was in the old Roman days; and 

 this substitution of steam for horse labour may save on 

 light land one-fifth, on heavy land one-third, of the 

 consumption of food, which might be converted into 

 beef and mutton, instead of into horse-flesh that 

 Swedish epicures cannot make savoury to us. Now, 

 it so happens that the point of advantage in steam 

 culture wljich is of least importance has had most 

 prominence given to it — wo suppose because of the 

 ease with which it can be estimated and appreciated. 

 The cost of the work is always a main point in public 

 trials ; but, in fact, the exptdition or rate of perform- 

 ance is of incomparably greater consequence. When 

 steam began to spin, he kept as many spindles going in 

 a single house as a whole city could previously find 

 feet and fingers for. And though a similar proportion 

 of increased rapidity is impossible in agriculture, expe- 

 dition is the greatest merit of the steam plough and 

 grubber, however difficult it may be to assign a specific 

 value to it. Owners of steam-cultivating machinery 

 find that they get througk a quantify of work as it 

 comes in flushes at certain times of the year, which it 

 would ruin a farmer to keep horses enough for through 

 the remainder of the year. And this forwardness of 

 work is equivalent to a certain increase of produce. 

 Then the depth and perfection of the tillage not only 

 render fewer operations necessary, but improve stiff 

 soils so much thnt the character of the ground becomes 

 changed, and great augmentation of yield is un- 

 doubtedly thus secured. Dr. Voelcker' says of the 



Woolston system: •' Personal inspection of Mr. Smith's 

 farm has convinced me that his plan of smashing-up 

 the top soil, subsequent ploughing into ridges, and sub- 

 soiling between the ridges, sufficiently covers and 

 mixes the manure with the soil. In my opinion, Mr. 

 Smith's plan of treating his land is decidedly preferable 

 to spade husbandry when it has to be carried out on a 

 large scale; and I am convinced that steam cultivation, 

 when properly carried out, will tend to increase the pro- 

 duce both of corn and roots in a surprising degree. 



Putting up the land into ridges before 



the frost sets in, and subsoiling between the ridges, com- 

 pletely alters the character of the clay land ; and many 

 heavy soils will yield abundant crops with scarcely any 

 manure, when due care is bestowed upon the mechani- 

 cal preparation of the land." 



But letting alone the increase of cropping, what a 

 wonderful economy there is in the mere tillage opera- 

 rations required ! Mr. Smith has a double-cjlinder 

 eight-horse engine to cultivate hislittlefarm with, and 

 so can seize the most favourable o|)por I unities in the 

 intervals of bad weather for getting his cultivation done. 

 Still, he is under the disadvantage of having the ex- 

 pense of the machinery laid upon a small area of land. 

 His tabular statement of costs and quantities shows 

 tliat on the heavy land the seed-beds for seventeen 

 crops require thirty. nine operations (including horse 

 as well as steam-work), at an average cost of 10s. lOd. 

 per acre for each crop. On the lighter land the seed- 

 beds for twenty-six crops require forty-nine operations, 

 at an average cost of 8s. 4d. per acre for each crop. 

 That this is incomparably below the exjiense of seed- 

 beds obtained by horse-labour, without steam-culture 

 to assist, is known ; but Mr. Smith places the matter 

 in a very striking light, by giving fair estimates of the 

 cost involved in ordinary horse-power farming. He 

 s-hows that, on heavy land, eighteen operations are re- 

 quired for the seed-beds of seven crops, at an average 

 cost of 21s. 4d. per acre for each crop— just double the 

 expense of the Woolston system. And on light land 

 eleven operations are requisite to prepare the seed-beds 

 of four crops, at an averuge cost of 12s. 3d. per acre for 

 each crop — one-half more than by the Woolston sys- 

 tem. Wo think the heavy-land operations of ordinary 

 farming are under-stated rather than made too much 

 of; so that, in our opinion, the gain by the steam- 

 tillage is more than a saving of one-half the expense 

 now incurred by the clay-land farmer in preparing for 

 the drill. In making Mr. Smitli and the Woolston 

 system the illustration of our article, we only regret 

 to hear that this gentleman and his agents, the Messrs. 

 Howard, have sued for a separation. 



GREATEST NATIONAL EVIL. 



THE SYSTEM OF LAND OCCUPANCY IN BRITAIN INCOMPATIBLE WITH 



IMPROVEMENT. 



There are few minds able to compass the accumulative 

 amount of a continued operating influence in one direction, 

 and still fewer who will listen to the exposure of an evil, 

 however important, which runs counter to their pride and pre- 

 judice. What I have here to state regarding the want of pro- 

 tection to property, capital, akill, labour laid out in the im- 

 provement of laud, will be listened to— perhaps pretty well 

 nnderatood— by the farmers of Britaiq; but the landlords who 

 have the power to remedy the evil, who are the doers of the 



evil, in many cases not dreamicg of the magnitude of the mis- 

 chief that results from the present system, will think it over- 

 stated — will not have their eyes opened to the baleful efl'ects, 

 in a national wealth and national strength point of view — an 

 evil, too, which they may selfishly not think their interest to 

 redress. Such being the case, and the injured farmers help- 

 less, I bring the subject to the bar of public opinion, for the 

 people'a verdict, in the hope that public opinion may have aa 

 impreseioD. Still, in every class there are good men and true, 



