4l6 TiMEHRI. 



In the Wilhelmina Polder the land is very dry although it belongs to 

 the low lands of our country. In California they have gone back to the 

 first idea of making the steam engines of use generally. I said already 

 that the Locomotive goes over the field, drawing loaded waggons, and that 

 these are quite different from those of Fowler, The wheels are not so 

 broad and are much higher, while the boilers are built lighter but are still 

 very powerful as compared with horses. It is astonishing to see how 

 quickly you can go over the land even if the soil is heavy. In polder 

 land such as ours, however, the Californian system would be unwork- 

 able. In California we used the plough and extirpator more on the 

 back lands, and the same apparatus was utilised to gather the corn by 

 means of a Combined Harvester, which cut and dried it at once to the 

 extent of il heftares per day, and put it in bags ; it is set in motion by 

 usingstraw in the furnace. 



IMAN G. J. VANDEN BOSCH. 

 Wilhelmina Polder, 



loth July, 1894. 

 The Secretary was dire6led to thank Mr. de Jonge and 

 also to forward the thanks of the Society to the writer 

 of the paper on Steam Ploughing (Mr. Vanden Bosch.) 

 The President said he would like to draw the atten- 

 tion of the planting Members of the Society to the work 

 of the indentured immigrants. Every able-bodied im- 

 migrant, under indenture, was supposed to perform in 

 the course of a year about 300 tasks, but owing to 

 sickness, absence with or without leave, desertion, &c., 

 a great number of them did not perform fifty per cent, 

 of the work that could be legally claimed. He thought 

 the matter one that ought to be taken up and con- 

 sidered by the Society. Those in charge of estates 

 ought to do away with some of this absence with or 

 without leave, and try to get more work from their 

 people. It would be better for the immigrants, better for 

 the estates, and better for the colony, that the legal number 

 of tasks should be performed, and he mentioned it that 



