356 Transactions of the American Institute. 



were old and well proven by generations of experience, and also that 

 the English agriculturists comprise in their number many of the best 

 informed, the most sagacious, and the most accurate and conscien- 

 tious workers on those islands ; and from their established system of 

 science, teaching by example, I believed that much could be derived 

 of lasting interest to us ; nor was I mistaken. 2. I wished to see all 

 the noted instances where bogs and sea marshes had been reclaimed 

 and added to the tillage area of the countries. 3. Connected, as I 

 am, with our Jersey school of science, I could not but feel a great 

 interest in all the establishments where the youth of that kingdom 

 are taught agriculture. During the five months of my visit, I was 

 able to pay pretty close attention to each of these heads ; but this 

 afternoon I can only give you the benefit of certain conclusions to 

 which I was led. 



Ploughing by Steam Power. 

 1. In cultivating by steam power Soon after I landed I was so 

 fortunate as to meet the son of Mr. Fowler, the inventor of the Eng- 

 lish steam plow, and he, with a civility which I do not forget, went 

 with me to many farms, and took much pains to let me see the work- 

 ing of the steam system, and the effects it has on the ideas and prac- 

 tices of farmers. They do not call it a steam plow half so often as 

 they do a cultivator. Steam is used to invert the surface of their 

 fields ; but its chief application is in pulverizing the earth to a great 

 depth. This is done by what may be described as a heavy and power- 

 ful harrow. That I saw was about seven feet across, and the teeth 

 were as big and as long as my arm, bent a little forward like the prong 

 of a dung-fork. It tears up the ground to the depth of twelve or 

 fifteen inches and makes a hard clay loam as mellow and friable as 

 an onion bed. 1 was surprised at the speed with which it was drag- 

 ged back and forth from one stationary engine to the other by the 

 stout wire rope. I tried to keep up with it, but found it was making 

 away from me unless I walked at the top of my speed. The rate of 

 progress was five miles an hour, and its day's work was twenty acres. 

 The plowmen told me they had found speed of great importance in 

 pulverizing. A tool that would leave the clay in lumps if running at 

 three miles an hour breaks all before it fine when going five miles an 

 hour. The ground was very dry and hard where I saw this first cul- 

 tivator working, a heavy loam with flint gravel ; it had been in wheat, 

 and the farmer was making this deep, mellow tilth with steam power 

 that he might have the best seed bed for roots. Speaking of the depth 



