at the Salishury Meetim/, 1857. 427 



in each of the well-Iinown classes of already existing/ fann-imple- 

 ments ; and is, when awarded, awarded but once and for ever ; 

 and a hurried or premature adjudication of it, on the mistaken 

 footing of an annual prize, would be, first, that the Aery next 

 year might stultify retrospectively and irremediably the hasty 

 award, by producing a machine answering literally tlie inten- 

 tion as well as the terms of the definition, by being an 

 economical substitute, more especially for clay soils, for the there 

 not faultless plough, or the perhaps not directly imitable spade ; 

 secondly, that should this not happen, the fact of the adjudication 

 having once for all taken place would greatly tend to the dis- 

 couragement of further enquiry or experiment of the very kind 

 which it was originally framed to promote. 



When the prize was offered, before the fever-heat of com- 

 petition had set in, its purport and construction were obvious 

 enough ; yet few would be disposed to say, unless blinded by 

 that which blinds the eye to independent truth, that the lapse of 

 one year, or two, or three, or even more, must necessarily draw 

 down an adjudication in the case of a prize offered under such 

 circumstances. Years count but little in the history of invention ; 

 and Time is of its essence ; both for the reaction of mind upon 

 mind, and the maturing of those systems already furthest in; 

 advance. At the same time it was and still is open to the Society 

 to limit the period over which the offer shall extend ; and at its 

 close, failing a more absolute attainment of the object sought, 

 to award or divide the amount according to the compaiative 

 merit of the competitors, though not strictly coming within the 

 wording of the premium ; thenceforward, allowing a prize simply 

 for the " best system of steam-cultivation " to take its place 

 amongst the ordinary annual prizes of the Society. 



There are, however, already many indications that the question 

 of comparative economy, between steam and horse power in the 

 culture of the soil, is not unlikely to pass altogether from the 

 province of the engineer, and the adjudication that hangs upon 

 the trial of a day. It has already become matter of experimental 

 proof that upon certain classes of clay soils most subject to 

 injury by the tread of horses, the economy of steam culture 

 receives its truest and final evidence not in the mere excellence 

 of work performed, or the merit however great of a well-turned 

 furrow-slice in the ploughing of the field ; but that a true com- 

 parative judgment must await the reaping of the produce, and 

 this, moreover, not at the end of a single year or the gathering 

 of a single crop ; but that the liberty of a more perfect selection of 

 season, and condition of soil for cultivation, and the absolute and, 

 so to speak, repeated avoidance of the tread of horses, year after 

 year, not only brings about a permanent and almost constitutional 



