THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



453 



THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM CULTURE. 



Five-and-twenty years ago Clarke Ilillyard wrote 

 in his Practical Farininij, " I liave loug been con- 

 vinced that a steam-plougli might bo constructed to 

 plough a dozen furrows at once, I hear that one is 

 likely soon to be brought forward, and I should think 

 it would well answer on tlie largo open arable farms in 

 Hampshire, and other counties." Little, however, 

 when he said this, could our author have thought the 

 prodigious amount of experimenting and squandering 

 of money, and public contests, and endless cuntroversy 

 and reporting in the papers, that would be necessary 

 before such a machine could be introduced. Indeed, 

 uobody has yet ventured upon " a dozen furrows " at 

 once, excepting our go-ahead cousins in the States, 

 who seem well up to the mark in preparing flaming 

 reports of performances. That is, if we may judge 

 from the accounts of their traction-engine, which, with 

 steam at a fearful pressure, makes one dash along the 

 prairie sward, and for a little while turns over nobody 

 knows how many furrows at once, at, of course, an 

 unmentionable depth, and the slices of such a breadth 

 that the work probably resembled the rooting of long- 

 snouted Illinois swine in search of corn-cobs ingeni- 

 ously buried as an incitement to the labour. Where- 

 upon it was published that our English mechanicians 

 were beaten hollow as to quantity of work per day and 

 cost per acre. 



Neither could Mr. Hdlyard foresee that when the 

 steam-plough became a really practical engine — 

 as it may now be pronounced to be — how another 

 of his observations would be interpreted. He wrote : 

 " I strongly recommend all those who enter into farm- 

 ing, either for employment, amusement, or to reclaim 

 land that has been injui-ed by a bad tenant, under no 

 consideration whatever to attempt the cultivation of a 

 poor clay soil, where the tillage is laborious and the 

 produce of the land always small. The labour in cul- 

 tivating a poor soil is not great, and therefore it may 

 be improved without ruinous expense. I know of no 

 employment so wretched, at this time of low prices, as 

 the cultivation of a poor clay soil; a decent livelihood 

 cannot be obtained by the most industrious and best 

 manager; by the sweat of his brow a truly hard- 

 working man may get a bare subsistence, but nothing 

 more." This is as true of poor clay occupation now 

 as it was in 1836, in spite of the growth of artificial 

 manuring, which has become a most expensive resort 

 of the impoverished farmer. But we are privileged to 

 behold the moans of relief and timely succour, and ulti- 

 mately of profit and amelioration, as perhaps unexampled 

 in our past agricultural history. Steam-culture is a 

 fact ; and the time of the clays has clearly arrived. In 

 a poor sand you may often sink hundreds after hun- 

 dreds of pounds in artificial and natural manuring, and 

 still find the soil too weak to bear crops capable of 



repaying the outlay. " Poor clays," on the other 

 hand, are often ot bad cliaracter, owing merely to the 

 want of good tillage and drainage, and under adequate 

 mechanical arrangement will produce any amount and 

 weight of cropping. So that the opinion of the agri- 

 cultural author wo have quoted nuiy not hold good in 

 reference to tlie unprofitableness of such clays, now 

 that the steam cultivator or plough has placed a new 

 power in our hand. 



The experience of Mr. Edward Holland, M.P., ol 

 Dumblcton Ilall, Evesham (the new Member of Coun- 

 cil, as given in the last part of the Society's Journal), 

 enables us to estimate pretty clearly the advantage to 

 be derived on stiS^ land by adopting the steam plough. 

 First, as to saving in the annual cost of tillage. The 

 daily working exi)onses of the 12 -horse-power steam- 

 plough are— for labour, lis. 9d. ; horse, with water- 

 cart, 3s ; half-a-ton of coals, 7s. ; oil, Is. ; making 

 altogether i? I 2s. 2d. Tlie estimate adopted by Mr. 

 Holland, after a lengthened experience, for the items 

 of repairs, depreciation, and interest upon first cost of 

 the engine, machinery, rope, and implement, amounts 

 to about £l 10s. per day; this depending on the 

 number of days worked in a year. The area of arable 

 land is scarcely 400 aci'es ; the amount of steam- 

 cultivation that can be beneficially applied to it being 

 thus ric!:o::cd by the manager in the four-courso 



system : — 



Acres. Days. 



For wheat (one ploughing) 100 in 20 



For roots (ditto iu Autumn) 100 in 20 



Spring cultivation, land (scuffled twice) j -.qq • -.q 



Extra work, foul laud (scuffled once) .... 100 in 10 

 For barley (one ploughing) - 100 in 20 



600 in 90 



The time stated is inclusive of removal. 



The cost of labour and wear, &e., being £-2 12s. 9d. 

 per day, the total yearly outlay for steam culture is, 

 therefore, £337 7s. 6d. Mr. Holland states that the 

 steam-plough has displaced 10 of his working horses; 

 and as he formerly kept 20, his stable expenditure 

 is reduced by one-half. His experience is that a 

 working horse cannot be kept at a less cost than 

 £30 a year. The average cost of food and extras, 

 including blacksmiths', saddlers', and farriers' bills, 

 and the cost of maintaining the value of the team 

 imdepreciated, given by Mr. Morton, from twenty- 

 one cases, is £28 10s. per horse. But great diflfer- 

 ences being made by the style of keeping adopted, we 

 take Mr. Holland's own valuation of £30, that is £300 

 for the 10 horses. To this must be added the propor- 

 tion of the wages of team-men, and of the annual wear 

 of implements, due to these horses ; this is estimated 

 by Mr. Morton (from the same twenty-one cases) at 



L h 



