117 



TILLAGE. 



TIMBKR AND TlMBKli-T. 



a* all clay-land farmers are well aware. It U very easily ascertained 

 whether a toil will boar much tillage or not It it only Decenary 

 to try some of it in a large pot or box ; make the surface very fine by 

 braking the clods, then water it abundantly, and let it dry in the sun ; 

 U a crust is formed in drying, that soil will not bear too much 

 harrowing and pulverising, and should be left in a moderately rough 

 state after towing or drilling the aeed ; but if, after it dries, the sur- 

 face u looee and porous, then the finer the tillage the better the seed 

 will vegetate. The whole depend* on the ready admission of air or 

 its exclusion. When grass-weds are sown, the surface should be well 

 pulverised ; but this cannot be safely done if the soil U apt to run 

 together when much rain falls soon after the aeed ia sown. Some 

 plant*, like beau, will force their way through a very hard surface ; 

 but small seeds are too weak to do so, and their growth U entirely 

 stopped by the lent crust on the surface. Besides the preparatory 

 tillage of the soil before sowing the seed, there is a great advantage in 

 the stirring of it as the planU are growing. On this depends all the 

 merit of the row-culture for every kind of plant, especially those 

 which have esculent roots or extensive foliage, and which are chiefly 

 cultivated for the sustenance of cattle. The effect of deep tillage U 

 here most remarkable. If rows of turnips or cabbages be sown at 

 such a distance that a small plough or other stirring implement can 

 be used between them, and the intervals be stirred more or leas, and 

 at different depths, it will be found that the deeper and more frequent 

 the tillage, until the foliage covers the whole interval or the bulbs 

 swell to a great size, the heavier and more abundant the produce 

 will be. It was this which led Tull, the father of drill husbandry, to 

 the conclusion that tillage was all that the soil required to maintain 

 perpetual fertility. As tillage can be increased by mechanical con- 

 trivances where labourers are scarce, whereas the supply of manure 

 must generally be limited, it follows that, as a general rule, the land 

 should be well and deeply tilled, due attention being paid to the 

 nature of the soil and ite property of retaining or transmitting 

 moisture. Very loose sands should not be much stirred until they 

 are consolidated by the admixture of marl, clay, chalk, or well-rotten 

 dung; but in all cases the manure should be mixed as intimately 

 as possible with the soil, and as deep as the tillage has gone, not 

 including the stirring of the subsoil ; for the root* will always pene- 

 trate thus far and find the nourishment which they require. Those 

 plants which throw out roots from the bottom of the stem, as wheat, 

 barley, and oats, require the surface to be most pulverised and 

 enriched to allow these roots to spread, and Mr. 'Smith of Lois 

 Weedon has found that where land is clayey and contains the mineral 

 food of plants, sufficient tillage between rows of wheat is all that ia 

 needed for constant cropping, or taking wheat after wheat annually 

 from the same field. Under ordinary culture, however, of this crop a 

 spring tillage is highly advantageous, which can only be given when 

 the seed has been deposited in rows by drilling or in patches by 

 dibbling. This hut method is found to give much finer crops, from the 

 circumstance that the hoe not only loosens the earth between the rows, 

 but also between the different patches of the growing corn, by which 

 the coronal roots are strengthened and the tillering of the stems so 

 much encouraged, that it is not uncommon to see twenty, thirty, or 

 more strong stems all bearing fine ears arising from one tuft of plants, 

 the produce of one or more seeds, whose roots are matted together and 

 send out fibres in every direction. The crowding of several plants 

 does not prevent their growth, provided the fibres con spread around 

 in a rich mellow soil, well pulverised, and admitting the air and 

 moisture readily. 



The old plough which acts on the principle of turning up a fresh 

 portion of the soil, burying that which has for some time been at the 

 surface, will probably always continue to be the chief implement of 

 tillage ; but other implements have been invented, which by means of 

 wheels can be regulated so as to act at a greater or less depth, 'i i. 

 have received the different names of scarifiers, grubbers, or cultivators, 

 according to the fancy of the inventors. Many 'of these answer the 

 purpose well, and save labour. They con be used in all directions so 

 as to pulverise the soil to any degree. Heavy rollers are used when 

 clods require breaking. 



It would be endless to enumerate all the implements of tillage which 

 are daily invented : some of the most useful have been already des- 

 cribed. [AiiRICULTUBAL IMPLEMENTS; ARABLE LAND; Pl.Ol'UH.] It 



is however right that reference should be made to the use of steam- 

 power in their employment. 



TiUoijt by Steam-p<iKer. Steam-power has long been used in driving 

 threshing-machines and chaff-cutters, and other barn machinery. It U 

 now coming rapidly into field use for cultivating the land. The 

 inoveablc steam-engine on wheel* is the source of power most generally 

 adopted, being available for any purpose ; and the higher powers of 

 this engine, being best adapted for the laborious work of cultivation, 

 are being made in increasing numbers. Probably in this way alone 

 10,000 hone-power, equal in its efficiency to at least 26,000 horses 

 is being added annually to the force employed in agriculture in this, 

 country. 



Steam-power is in the beginning cheaper than that of horses ; it is 

 continuous, while that of horses is necessarily intermittent ; and it is 

 more efficient, because a greater force can bo more easily concentrated 

 on a given i 



A horse, as used in agriculture, costs M. or 6,1. per hour ; a steam- 

 engine, under agricultural circumstances, costs from Sd. to 4rf. per 

 horse-power per hour. A hone works in Scotland ten houn a day, in 

 England eight or nine houn a day, in the field it is forced to break 

 off work for the maintenance of its strength : an engine works as many 

 houn, with unremitting vigour, as the engineer may choose. It does, 

 in some instances, work 24 houn per diem, and on some farms it is 

 made to work as long as daylight huts. Again, hones lose time in all 

 field operations, owing to the dilatory process of turning on the head* 

 land : where steam-driven machinery is employed instead, this loss of 

 time is greatly diminished. But the chief advantage of steam-power 

 for cultivation arises from the ability by means of it t 

 any quantity of force that may be desired. At Busoot I'.ul. 

 Faringdon, ploughing was this spring (1801) done by steam-power iu 

 the stiff Oxford clay of that district, which could not have been done 

 by any quantity of horses, because the power required demanded a team 

 which would have trampled the ground into a harder state than that 

 out of which any implement drawn after them could have got it ; and 

 there is ample experience to show that on this ground alone steam- 

 cultivation is more efficient resulting in better crops than those 

 afforded by horse-cultivation. This is especially true in the case of 

 clay lands, whose value will no doubt be materially increased 1 >y t lie 

 efficient means now at length provided for working them. 



There are two systems in general adoption of applying steam ; 

 to the cultivation of the soil. In the one, which has been carried out 

 by Mr. Smith, of Worlstone, the steam-engine stationed in one corner 

 of a field gives motion alternately to one and the other of two wind- 

 lasses detached from it, round which is coiled a portion of the wire- 

 rope which is carried from one to the other round the piece of land 

 that is being cultivated, and a grubber being fastened to this rope is 

 thus dragged backwards and forwards on the largest straight side of 

 the piece that is being worked : the anchon carrying pulleys at the 

 ends of the working furrow and at all other comers in the course of 

 the rope, are shifted as the extension of the work requires, and the 

 grubber tears up or " smashes up " two or three feet in width at a 

 time, of the land that is being cultivated. The common 7 or 8-horae 

 power moveable steam-engine is well adapted to this work. 



In Mr. Fowler's system the steam-engine is furnished with a single 

 pulley lying horizontally beneath the boiler, and it pulls itself along 

 the headland, while a travelling anchorage, namely, a truck on sharp 

 discs for wheels, which cut into the land, pulls itself along the other 

 headland. This anchor is provided with a similar pulley, and a rope 

 travels round both pulleys, being kept tight by an arrangement on the 

 framework of the ploughs, which is drawn by it alternately to and fro 

 between the two. The pulleys hold this rope by a clip-groove, which 

 hinders it from slipping, so that a single half-round holds it tight 

 enough. The tilling implement thus drawn to and fro, consists of two 

 seta of ploughs or grubben facing one another ; the one working when 

 going from the engine, and the other working when travelling to the 

 engine. The change from one to the other need not waste more than 

 half a minute on the headland ; and the furrow may be 400 yards long, 

 or even longer. It will be easily seen what a small loss of time iu the 

 day is thus incurred, when compared with the usu.il experience of 

 horse-culture. Mr. Fowler employs generally a 12-horse engine, and, 

 with a four-furrow plough, gets over eight or ten acres a day, at a cost 

 generally of not more than 5t. or 6. an acre ; whereas by the less 

 efficient horse-cultivation, the process must cost at least 10*. or 12s. 

 an acre. 



There can be little doubt that the application of steam-power to the 

 cultivation of the land will revolutionise agriculture on alLclay soils. 

 It will enable the farmer to dispense with probably nearly half his 

 draught animals, and it will both cheapen the cost and increase the 

 efficiency of all tillage operations. 



TILT-HAMMER, is a large hammer worked by machinery, impelled 

 either by a water-wheel or a steam-engine. Such hammers are ex- 

 tensively used in the manufacture of iron and steel, anil the name, till- 

 mill is sometimes applied to the mechanism of which they form the 

 principal feature. The various details given under HAMMKH; II;N: 

 and STEEL, will serve to illustrate the chief points in the construction 

 and action of tilt-hammers. 



TIMBER, PRKsi;i;\ ATION OF. [TIMBER.] 



TIMBER AND TIMBER-TRADE. It is the purpose of this article 

 to treat briefly of several matters relating to timber-trees, wood- working, 

 and the timber-trade, and to refer to such portions of the subject as 

 liave been noticed iu other articles. 



Timbcr-Trta ; Wood. The botanical cliarocteristics of timber-trees 

 are given under the scientific names of the several trees in the NAT. 

 HIST. Div. The economical uses of many of tin in arc described iu 

 the present Division, under Asa, BEECH, Umcii, KI.M, Fin, OAK, Ac. 

 But the characteristics of timber-trees, and of wood generally, may be 

 rapidly gl.tnced at in this place. 



Wood is that part of a plant that exists between the pith and the 

 bark. Amongst the various kinds of wood yielded by the different 

 families, there are great differences of character depending on tip- 

 mode and rapidity of its growth, the size of t h it is 



composed, and their relation to the medullary rays which pass through 

 them, and also on the character of the secretions deposited in it. 

 Endogens have no bark, and are generally hollow in the middle, and 



