at the Salisbury Meeting, 1857. 429 



plough is a comparative boon to such soils, in so far as it relieves 

 from superficial traffic, no one can doubt ; but that in the com- 

 pression of the subsoil, aggravated by its increased weight, and 

 in the turning upon the headlands, it retains unaltered some of 

 the worst features, is equally open to observation. It is the 

 common practice of workmen desiring to arrest the penetration or 

 escape of water, to draw the back of the spade with a light smear- 

 ing action along the bottom or side of the dam or trench. On 

 soils with only an ordinary proportion of clay the effect is in- 

 stantaneous, and lasts a considerable time. What they do with 

 a purpose, the plough does incidentally, but with a far heavier 

 and continuous path over the whole field, leaving an annual 

 hardened under-pan, which, whether on drained or undrained. 

 land, certainly formed no part of the intended operation of the 

 farmer, and is therefore demonstrably to reason, as well as by 

 the ocular evidence left in the open furrows, a faulty action 

 demanding, and suggesting, a remedy. 



It is in these apparently inseparable traits of the passage of 

 the plough through clay soils that the best comment seems to be 

 contained on the question again indicated in the judges' Report 

 on the steam ploughs, — whether they can be regarded in the light 

 of a " substitute." There is little need to consider this. When it 

 is already evident that a plough worked by steam-power gets rid 

 of some of the evils incidental, on certain soils, to that worked by 

 horses, it becomes quite conceivable that retaining substantially 

 the same form, it might yet come to get rid of those remaining. 

 The nominal objection could hardly survive the real one, since the 

 only object of substitution is the complete removal in the sub- 

 stitute of the defects in the original. This accomplished, substi- 

 tution is, literally as well as substantially, attained, for there is 

 nothing in the etymology of the word to prohibit similarity of 

 form in the instrument which shall furnish the whole of the quali- 

 ties required (as may be partially instanced in Mr. Halkett's 

 plan, in which the pressure of the plough is borne upon the rail 

 and not by the subsoil) ; while it is equally true that there is 

 nothing in the nature of the prize which prohibits a suspension 

 of judgment, while this object inay be in process of accom- 

 plishment. 



What is sought for in the application of steam to cultivation 

 is an improved system in aid of those disadvantages apparently 

 inseparable from horse-power on clay soils, which are specifically 

 detrimental to their best nature and development, placing them 

 in a scale of factitious inferiority, regard being had both to their 

 chemical qualities, and their mechanical capabilities. 



In bringing to a conclusion this Report, and with it the duties 

 of an office, which, extending over four years, as it brings some 



