62? 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 10 



and understood to be, the special agent of Mr. Whit- 

 marsh. 



[/.] See Mr. Bateham's letter. Mr. Reynolds also 

 expressed to us his indignation, at what he considered 

 a cheat, in the strongest terms, which he would not 

 have done, had any such story been told him, as Mr. 

 Huntington states. 



[§•.] Our inference was drawn from the fact, that the 

 seed was distributed in this section, some days before 

 the publication in the Hampshire Gazette could have 

 reached this city, and not from the fact of that publi- 

 cation itself, which makes a very important dilierence. 

 This, with the remaining part of Mr. H.'s letter, only 

 shows his ability at special pleading, and the "public 

 will judge what it is worth, "^ when they call to mind 

 that we have shown conclusively, that there was time 

 enough, after the arrival of the seed at Northampton, 

 to have supplied all the orders which could possibly 

 have been received, beibre the announcement in the 

 Hampshire Gazette, that it was not seed of the Multi- 

 caulis. 



From the British Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 



ON THE APPLICATION OF STEAM TO THE PUK- 

 POSES OF HUSBANDRY. 



It is now upwards of three years since, at a 

 meeting of noblemen, members of parliament, 

 and gentlemen connected with the landed interest, 

 brought together principally by the exertions of 

 the writer, the three following resolutions, which 

 he had prepared, were unanimously adopted : 



" That the application of steam to inland transport 

 and agricultural purposes will, by cheapening. the pro- 

 duction and saving the consumption of the food of the 

 country, be accompanied by advantages to all classes 

 of the community of the most extensive and perma- 

 nent utility, and that, as such, this meeting considers 

 it highly entitled to their support, and that of society at 

 large. 



" That the practicability of applying steam to gene- 

 ral locomotive purposes was satisfactorily proved by 

 evidence before a Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons in ISoljWho reported the same to be 'practica- 

 ble, safe, one of the greatest improvements in the mode 

 of internal conveyance ever introduced, and entitled to 

 legislative protection; and that, since that time, it has 

 been farther and fully established by numerous suc- 

 cessful experiments." 



" That this meeting considers it desirable that an 

 association be formed for bringing the measure for- 

 ward in the most prominent manner, which its own 

 importance, political and commercial, and the exigen- 

 cies of society recpiire, to be called a Society for Pro- 

 moting the Application of Steam to General Trans- 

 port and Agricultural Purposes." 



This association, though about forty members 

 of parliament consented to act on the provisional 

 committee, from the various poliiical changes 

 which occurred during the sessions of the years 

 1833 und 1834, came to nouglit ; but it proved to 

 be the nucleus of that co-operation on the part of 

 a lew zealous and persevering friends of agricul- 

 ture, which, after surmounting many difficulties 

 and discouragements, eventually realized, on Ihe 

 15th of December last, the formation, in the me- 

 tropolis, of " The Central Agricultural Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland." On the occasion 

 above referred to (23 ol April 1833,) the Chair- 

 man Henry Handly, Esq. M. P., observed, that 

 he felt himself incapable of doing justice to the 



position in which the meeting had placed him, 

 having no mechanical or engineering knowledge, 

 nor boasting any scientific acquaintance with the 

 subject; he was, however, strongly impressed 

 whh its immense importance; he felt steam was 

 the most, mighty engine as yet confided to mortal 

 hands, that its powers and resources had been 

 hitherto hut partially developed, and that he anti- 

 cipated ultimalely the greatest advantages to every 

 class of society, li'om its application to the various 

 purposes of transport and agriculture. Farther, 

 he took occasion to observe, that he had, four 

 years prior to the date of the meeting, entertained 

 the project of the application of mechanical pow- 

 er to agriculture, and, ibr that purpose, had ottered 

 a premium tc)r the invention of a steam-plough ; 

 he had the assurance of many scientific men that 

 it was perii^ctly practicable, and he attempted to 

 form a society with a view to its encouragement, 

 but failed. He still entertained the same opinion 

 as to the advantages to be derived from it, and 

 felt that, as he feared the agriculturist would re- 

 ceive no legislative or financial relief, the only 

 mode by which certain inferior natural wheat 

 lands could be retained in cultivation would be by 

 substituting inanimate for animate power, whereby 

 diminishing the cost of production. In sayingthis 

 he begged to observe, that were it probable the 

 application of such a power would tend to dimin- 

 ish the demand for manual labor, he for one 

 would never become its advocate. However, on 

 the contrary, he felt satisfied it would very mate- 

 rially increase human labor, for, by displacing an- 

 imal power, it would effect an enormous saving in 

 the consumption of the fijod of man, and a reduc- 

 tion in the cost of cultivation. Colonel Torrens, 

 M. P., who is well known to the public by his 

 writings on political economy, in moving the first 

 resolution, stated, that the Select Committee on 

 Steam Carriages, which sat in 1831, of which he 

 had been a member, had given the project a pa- 

 tient and fill! investigation, and had taken the evi- 

 dence of a number of eminent engineers, and 

 others practically acquainted with its detail : that 

 the report embodied the full and explicit sense 

 ol the committee as to the practicability, safety, 

 and utility of applying steam to the purposes of lo- 

 comotion. In retijrence to the economic advanta- 

 ges that would result to society irom this extension 

 of mechanical power, he believed they would be 

 very great. The bringing of agricultural produce 

 more cheaply to market w^ould tend to increase 

 profits, to encourage industry, and to enlarge the 

 demand for labor, whilst considering how it would 

 enable us profitably to extend cultivation, and ap- 

 ply with advantage additional portions of labor 

 and capital to the soils already under tillage, he 

 did not consider it unreasonble to conclude that it 

 will eventually double the wealth, prosperitj-, and 

 population of the kingdom. These opinions were 

 corroborated by Mr. Shaw Le Fevre, INl. P., who 

 moved the second resolution ; by Sir John Se- 

 bright, Eart. M. P., and various other gentle- 

 men, who addressed the meeting. 



Having labored for years, by means of the 

 press, to awaken the attention of the agricultural 

 community to this, in our opinion, most important 

 subject, it is with great satislaction that we are en- 

 abled to inlbrm our readers, that, since the date of 

 our last paper (December 1835,) the application 

 of steam to the plough has been made a matter of 



