836 



FARMERS' REGISTER— STEAM POWER FOR HUSBANDRY. 



disturb each other; and this inconvenience is ma- 

 terially augmented, if any sort of penning, or con- 

 finement, be attempted. Hence it is obvious, that 

 the practice of intermixing various kinds of live 

 stock is productive of evils, which are, in many 

 instances, greater than those res^ulting li'om the 

 waste of tbod intended to be prevented by tliis 

 practice. There is, indeed, no doubt but that by 

 hard stocking, the grass will be kej)t short, and 

 will consequently be more palateable in general to 

 the animals that eat it, than if it were allowed to 

 grow to a great length; and that even unpleasant 

 patches may thus be consumed; but as animals, 

 which are to be fattened, must not only have sioeet 

 IboJ, but also an abundant bite at all times, in order 

 to bring them Ibrvvard in a kindly manner, it ap- 

 pears scarcely possible to unite both these advan- 

 tages with an indiscriminate mixture of stock: it 

 may, therelbre, be generally prudent to confine the 

 practice to neat cattle and sheep. 



Independently of remedying the inconveniences 

 above specified, a variety of circumstances concur 

 to prove, that the practice of soiling, or feeding 

 cattle during the summer withdifierent green and 

 succulent vegetables, which are cut and carried to 

 them; and of stall-feeding them in the winter sea- 

 son with dry fodder, in conjunction with various 

 nutritive roots, will in general be highly economi- 

 cal. The former of these modes, in particular, 

 has been but httle used till within a lew years, 

 and has not been treated with that attention which 

 its importance deserves: hence, we trust, it will 

 neither be inconsistent with the nature of the pre- 

 sent work, nor altogether uninteresting to those 

 who are sedulously aiming at the imjjrovement of 

 their lands, if we consider the subjects of soihng 

 and stall-leeding in the following points of view. 



[To be continued.] 



ON THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO PURPOSES 

 OF HUSBANDRY 



From the [British] Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, of 1834. 



[The article from which the followinfr extracts are 

 taken is not such as might be inferred from its title. 

 It is neither an account of any practical application of 

 steam power to tlie uses of agricultuie, nor an argu- 

 ment in favor of the practicability of any such plans. 

 Eut assuming it as unquestionable tjiat steam power 

 may be so applied, the application and its effects are 

 treated of as affecting the general and political state of 

 agriculture in England. The statements given of the 

 actual use of steam power to propel carriages on com- 

 mon roads, will be found interesting; and still more so, 

 is the admission of the writer, and .the grounds for the 

 admission, that the corn law^ of England must be re- 

 pealed. The agricultural interest has heretofore clung 

 to that system of restriction and monopol}^ as if the 

 strength and welfare, indeed the existence of the na- 

 tion, depended on its maintenance — and every agricul- 

 tural journal has been a moutli-piece to proclaim the 

 absolute necessity of prohibiting the importation of 

 foreign grain. Nor is the cliange of tone now exhibited 

 in the Journal of Agriculture any evidence of a change 

 of opinion on this subject, but merely a yielding, from 

 necessity, to the strength of the great and increasin"- 



number of their opponents, who contend for "cheap 

 bread," and the destruction of the corn laws. The 

 reluctant admission that this must be conceded, coming 

 from an organ of the party which erected and sup- 

 ported this system, is the strongest proof that the days 

 of the prohibitory system in England are numbered, 

 as well as in our own country. The progress of the 

 knowledge of political economy among the higher 

 classes in England, and of intelligence in general 

 among the mass of the people, have given the death 

 blow to the prohibitions on the corn trade. It will not 

 be very long before England may be as much bene- 

 fited by buying, as we shall be by selling to her, our 

 cheap grain— and as soon perhaps, there will be an end to 

 the equally impolitic and injurious restrictions imposed 

 by our laws on the importation of foreign manufac- 

 tured commodities. The oppressed portions of both 

 nations have become too well informed to be longer 

 deluded by the interested advocates for restrictions on 

 trade — and are too strong to be thus oppressed, when 

 knowing their wrongs and the sources of them. The 

 friends of free trade may confidently expect to see the 

 practical operation of their doctrines gradually and 

 widely extended — and our country, and the civilized 

 world, released from the fetters of the prohibitory sys- 

 tem, which ignorance forged, and avarice and ambition 

 have so long kept firmly riveted.] 



At the present moment when the ciy ibr cheap 

 bread is waxing louder and louder, and the anti- 

 corn-law party is daily increasing in numbe- 

 and power, it may not be unimportiant to call the 

 attention of the Highland Society, and the agri- 

 culturists of Scotland, to the great advantages 

 which will arise from the adoption of the cheaper 

 system of husbandry which the application of 

 steam to general purposes of brute animal labor 

 now renders practicable. 



During the last twelve months, rapid advance- 

 ment has been made in locomotive science, and a 

 great change has been effected in its favor upon 

 the public mind. The problem in mechanics, 

 which the whole scientific world clung to as an 

 axiomatic truth, that the periphery of a wheel had 

 not sufficient hold upon the ground to render it an 

 available fulcrum, was experimentally exploded 

 by Gurney, in the year 182.5, and, since that time, 

 Dance, Ilandeock, Smith, Ogle, Macerone, and 

 various others, have, after surmounting personal 

 and mechanical difficulties almost incredible, es- 

 tablished, by numerous successful experiments, tbe 

 possibility of substituting inanimate for animate 

 power. 



Without enumerating any of the various per- 

 formances of those locomotive carriages, upon 

 which, in 1831, after a patient investigation for 

 three months, a Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons arrived at the conclusion, "that sufficient ev- 

 idence had been .adduced to prove that they can 

 be propelled by steam on common roads, at an av- 

 erage rate of ten miles ))er Jiour; that at this rate 

 they have conveyed uj^wards of fourteen passen- 

 gers; that their weight, including engine, fuel, wa- 

 ter, and attendants, may be under three tons; that 

 they can ascend and descend hills of considerable 

 inclination, witb facility and safety; that they are 

 perfectly safe Ibr passengers; that they are not 



