529 



^nes have worked regularly up to the present, not only on level ground, 

 but on hill-sides, and are now in a more efficient state than when new. 



Experience has enabled the writer to surmount such difficulties as 

 keeping the water in the boiler while moving on steep hill-sides, signal- 

 ing from one engine to the other over intervening hills, the sinking of 

 engines in miry grouud, &c. He has added to his steam-force " a trac- 

 tion-engine for conveying dung to the fields, and carrying stones and 

 wood and other work on the estate." He also says : " I have successfully 

 brought into use on my farms a combined harrow and roller, and ex- 

 pect to be able to turn out a drain-plow, to cut drains 3^ to 4 feet deep, 

 at a cost of only a few shillings per acre. The greatest advance, how- 

 ever, that I have made is by the purchase of two 20- (nominal) horse 

 power engines for the purpose of knifing or subsoiling to a depth of 

 from 2 to 3 feet." 



Illustrating the economy of steam-cultivation, he states : 



Taking the present price of horses at £75 per horse, harnesses, plows, and implements 

 at £300, makes a saving in stocking a farm of £1,650, or w'thin a little of the cost of 

 a double set of engines, with tackle complete, costing £1,800, The higher wages of 

 the engine and plow drivers, with the amount paid for coal and oil, will bear no com- 

 parison with the keep of horses ; besides, when the engines are idle they do not eat. 

 The wire-rope on clay-laud lasts five years. Put the cost of repairs, at the outside, at 

 £70 or £100 per annum, which is much less than blacksmiths' bills and the tear and 

 wear of horse-flesh and implemeuts, &c. 



Go-OPERATIVB LAND MOVEMENT. — A law recently passed by the 

 British Parliament provides that any industrial and provident society, 

 registered under the act, " shall have power to purchase, erect, and sell 

 and convey, or to hold land and buildings." A paper read before the 

 statistical society in June last by Mr. E. W. Brabrook, reports results as 

 follows : Up to JTovember 18, 1873, thirty-three societies had been reg- 

 istered under the act, organized for the sole purpose of buying and 

 selling land. From these recently-formed societies, with a single excep- 

 tion, no returns of results are as yet available; but many of the ordinary 

 co-operative societies have registered for the same purpose, and returns 

 to the registrar of friendly societies for the year 1872 show that under 

 the act above mentioned buildings and lands had been purchased as an 

 investment, or to sell again, to the value of £231,788, or 13 per cent, of 

 £1,792,967, the total assets, 



ALaERiAN AGRICULTURE. — The French province south of the Medi- 

 terranean embraces a large belt of cultivable laud, stretching along the 

 coast and i)rotected from the hot blasts of the desert by the Atlas 

 Mountains, with sides well wooded, and summits capped with snow. 

 Here about 30,000,000 of acres, a surface 20 per cent, greater than that of 

 Ohio, is capable of cereal'culture, but not over a third is actually occupied. 

 The migratory natives, indisposed to assume the care and responsibility 

 of cropping, are still available in sufficient numbers in the heavy labors 

 of harvest. Plowing and sowing take place in October. Heavy April 

 rains insure a good crop even with the imperfect methods of culture in 

 use. The plow is a wooden share, unshod with iron, such as is used in 

 Spain and Provence. The grain is reaped by hand and trodden out by 

 cattle, after which it is winnowed by the winds of heaven. It is mostly 

 the Triticum durum, or hard wheat of the country, which is highly es- 

 teemed for the manufacture of maccaroni, vermicelli, &c. Its large 

 proportion of gluten makes a flour very profitable to the baker, as it 

 absorbs large quantities of water. Barley is grown in the place of oats, 

 either as a forage-crop or a grain-crop. It supplies the breadstuffs of 

 the poorer classes. It is well adapted to malting. The most productive 

 variety is the Hordeum noxusticum. 



