APPLICATION OF STEAM TO AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES. 49 



possession of these portable engines, with their accompanying thrashing- 

 machinery, to travel about the district in which they live, and thrash the 

 grain of the farmers at a certain rate per bushel or quarter, or per day, 

 as the case may be, the farmer always giving a certain amount of assist- 

 ance in the working of them. But, in my opinion, although this kind 

 of steam thrashing power has the advantage of being easily removed from 

 place to place, there are, at the same time, disadvantages attending it as 

 compared with the fixed machine. For example, I have seen one of them 

 come to a field on a given day, according to appointment between its 

 owner and the farmer. The morning looked threatening, but the work 

 had to be gone on with, as the farmer had to pay the party engaged. The 

 machinery and engine were set, and the work of thrashing begun, but 

 before the first rick was finished rain came on, and the result was that 

 both grain and straw got wet. This, it is true, does not always happen ; 

 still, it is liable to occur any day in our wet climate, and it is certainly 

 a very undesirable thing to have grain wetted under any circumstances. 

 Now, this can always be avoided by storing the grain in the stackyard 

 adjoining the steading, and thrashing it out under cover of the barn, 

 by means of fixed machinery there. Another objection to portable 

 thrashing machinery is, that it is much more liable to get out of order, 

 and therefore more expensive to keep in repair than fixed machinery. 

 It cannot be out of place to remark here, with regard to a thrashing- 

 machine, that every farmer who has not got one, and intends to purchase 

 one, should procure the thrashing machinery of an approved kind, and fix 

 it in a proper site adjoining his barn ; and at the same time he should 

 procure a portable steam-engine, constructed to drive this when necessary, 

 and of sufficient power and suitable construction to be used either to work 

 a steam cultivating apparatus, or to perform the work of a traction engine 

 to haul heavy loads on the farm-roads. By adopting this plan in regard 

 to an engine, it may be made available for many purposes for which a 

 fixed engine could not be made applicable. 



But besides the purpose of thrashing, the steam-engine is now exten- 

 sively used on farms for churning, cutting fodder for cattle-feeding, 

 bruising corn for horses, stone-breaking, sawing timber, &c. In short, 

 in so far as these operations and the thrashing of grain are concerned, 

 the application of steam-power may be said to be a perfect success ; but 

 these form comparatively a small part of the work of the farm, the cul- 

 tivation of the land and bringing home of the produce being the most 

 important and expensive operations ; and to these I now propose to 

 attend for a little, to see how far steam-power* has been brought to bear 

 on them up to the present time. 



In a work of this kind it would be superfluous to enter into details in 



D 



