154 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



there was exhibited a movable steam engine, intended to be 

 carried to a farmer s premises as it might be wanted for furnish 

 ing a threshing power, and other purposes. I have not yet learnt 

 how it succeeds ; but if success is not attained at a first attempt, 

 it is ultimately certain. These machines are made of two, four, 

 and six horse power. The cost of the two horse power is 80, 

 or $ 400, and a three horse power, 110. This does not include 

 the threshing machine. A fixed steam power must have many 

 advantages over a movable steam machine. It is never safe to 

 calculate upon doing a great many things with any single ma 

 chine. A self-directing machine would be a great discovery 

 but, short of man himself, we can hardly look for that, though it 

 seems sometimes to be nearly approached. A great difficulty, in 

 many cases, is, that the machinery must be trusted to the hands of 

 the stupid, careless, and sometimes malignant. 



Such a power as this, on a large farm, may be applied to a 

 great many uses ; and its advantages, in many cases, will be 

 incalculable. The turning of a grindstone for sharpening scythes 

 and axes, on a large farm, would save, in the United States, a 

 great expense of labor and fatigue ; and its application to cut 

 ting roots, and chopping long fodder for stock, to breaking and 

 crushing corn and oats, and to grinding grain into flour for the 

 family, as well as for cattle, would be highly useful, especially in 

 those parts of the country where water power is difficult to be 

 procured. This is the case in all flat countries, and particularly 

 on the prairies in the Western States. There, in many cases, 

 coal abounds ; and there, if ever it may be expected, where miles 

 almost may be run without occasion to turn the plough, steam 

 may be applied for the purposes of draft. 



Agriculture owes, also, a considerable debt to steam, for the 

 advantages it affords in the construction of agricultural imple 

 ments, in respect to cheapness and uniformity. In cutting, saw 

 ing, and planing wood, in grinding and fashioning metals, steam 

 power is applied to great advantage. In one, if not more, 

 extensive establishment, for the manufacture of agricultural 

 implements in New England, steam power is used, so as greatly 

 to reduce the expensiveness of ploughs, and other articles, which 

 are here made. The same thing is done in England ; and this 

 application of this wonderful power is every day extending itself 

 to a most extraordinary degree. I may well call it wonderful ; 



