730 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



following important practical subject for our inquiry 

 and consideration, namely : If all our sorts of Tur- 

 nips are derivative*, how are they to be kept up in 



purity and efficiency ? 



The stock farmer, in the case of a breed of cattle, 

 wculd answer :— 



the creat 



Look carefully to the blood of 



from which you breed, and do not 



breed from animals of an inferior kind, and in all 



cases choose the most perfect forms and most 

 healthy subjects. 



Now, if we can be brought to consider that the 

 principles are the same in the propagation of pure 

 varieties of plants as in pure breeds of cattle, a 

 great difficulty in the production of seeds of a good 

 quality and true to their sort will be removed. As 

 these, therefore, are objects which may in either 



case be attained by attention to simple rules, the 

 three following are offered as of primary importance 

 in the case of Turnips : 



1st. Never grow seed from a stock that has been repeated 

 an the same farm. 



2d. When deiei mined to seed ang sort 9 always choose your 

 subjects* 



3d. The patch to be seeded should always be as far as 

 possible removed from others of the same family. 



1st. If we view different sorts of Turnips as 

 derivatives from a wild stock, their peculiarities 

 having been induced by the operation of circum- 

 stances very different from those to which their wild 

 parents were subject, we shall at once see that the 

 moment we allow our subjects to revert to the con- 

 ditions of a nomadic life, they may be expected to 

 become wild to a greater or less extent, and thus it 

 is that continually sowing own-grown seed leads 

 to that deformity of root which has been previously 

 described in these columns as finger and toe, but 



! 



Rape aspect. Here, then, appears good evidence of 

 hybridisation from con'act of two plants of the 

 same genus, purposely planted in proximity ; and 

 besides this, we see in the degenerate Turnips the 

 *esult of using own-^rown seed in the same soil ; the 

 marked effects in this instance of the past year leading 

 us to expect a still further decline on repeating the 

 experiment. If then we are right in considering the 

 admixture of Rape in the instance quoted to lie the re- 

 sult of hybridisation — and there seems little reason to 

 doubt it when we know what we can do upon trial, 

 and moreover when we can constantly see its effects in 

 sports of every kind — it follows as a necessity that 

 Turnips for seed should not only be chosen of good 

 >ort but should be kept, in seeding, as far removed 

 from all sources of con : animation as possible ; and 

 hence that the choosing a plot of ground at the corner 

 of a field for the production of Turnip seeds of dif- 

 ferent sorts is not good in practice. We have seen 

 Swedes, Red Turnips, and White Turnips, placed 

 for seed side by side, and though it is impossible to 

 watch the result of these cases, yet the quantity of 

 impure seed there is in the market, and indeed the 

 almost total impossibility of obtaining a true sort, is 

 hence, to a considerable extent, accounted for. 



In concluding this part of our subject we wish it 

 to be understood that there are other causes in 

 operation which greatly affect seed growing, such as 

 climate, soil, and general management ; and indeed 

 the latter is an important consideration, as after all 

 the growth of good seed requires as much care and 

 attention to details as the production of good stock, 

 and the cause of so many failures in the quantity 

 and quality of our crops is to be found in the 

 often combined efforts of ignorance and dishonesty 

 in our seed growers aud seed merchants, though we 



besides this, as we have repeatedly proved from ex- ^ ave y et t0 J earn w hy the exercise of skill, energy, 



periment, each year leads to a wilder habit of an( l straightforwardness in the one case should not 



growth, with an increasing tendency to running, and ^ e M succes&ful as it would be important in the 



what is termed sporting, and going off into varieties, other. 



What the continuance for a series of years of using 



own-^rown seeds from the same stock may effect, 



we are unable to say, but in as far as experiments 



at present support our view, we should not be 



[Nov. 3, 1855. 



STEAM CULTIVATION. 





prised to find at the end of seven or eight years not 

 only that every trace of the original sort had been 

 lost, but that several varieties of the genus Brassica, 

 and even Sinapis, all of annual tendency, would be 

 the result. ^ The branching of the roots is the first 

 step in this downward tendency, the loss of the 

 bulb and consequent running to seed or annual 

 habit the next : these we have seen brought about 

 in the third generation of own-grown seed, and w T e 

 may expect that a descent so rapid at first is at least 

 as rapidly maintained. 



2d. That a choice of subjects for propagating 

 seed is desirable for the maintenance of purity, any 

 one may satisfy himself of by looking over even the 

 best crops. What crop of Turnips is free from double 

 crowns, large and straggling foliage, distorted roots, 

 and generally unhealthy individuals, to say nothing 



" sports," or hybrids of hybrids ? Careful choice, 

 therefore, should be made of examples for seeding, 

 and that not from one but several examinations, at 

 different periods during their growth. We have 

 seen patches of Turnips left for seed where they 

 have grown, and every plant which could add its 

 quota to the bulk- 



In my last (p. 620) I proposed that the farmer should 

 subdivide a field into allotments, for the purpose of en- 

 abling him to substitute seam for horse-power in culti- 

 vation — that these allotments should each contain one 

 half acre, or not more than an acre, and that the con- 

 tent of such plots should be inscribed within the area of 

 a " circle ;" since this particular figure would enable us to 

 fulfil the all important condition of " time n in operating. 

 It now remains to me to explain what kind of machine, 

 and what combination or arrangement of powers will 

 be required to operate on arable land, when inscribed 

 in such circular figure. 



Of 



sport or otherwise 



whether healthy or unsound, 

 was made to do so. Here the 



seed was very faulty, and the same seed grown on 



in 



ment 



mental plots. 



the same spot the following season resulted .„ 

 disease to a greater or less extent of the whole crop. 

 3d. The different varieties of Turnips are hybrids. 

 It follows, from their number and great variation, 

 that this plant has a peculiar facility of producing 

 sorts; some of them, indeed, have been brought 

 about by artificial, i. e. intentional hvbridising; 

 others by choosing as seeding plants varieties which 

 have been hybridised accidentally. The process is 

 exceedingly simple, both naturally and artificially. 

 This will be easily made apparent from an experi- 

 tt which we have still going on in our experi- 



Thus, in the summer of the year 

 1854 we planted a pa.ch of Rape by the side of 

 some seeding Turnips, and another patch with Rape 

 intermixed with the Turnips, so that they mi^ht 

 flower at the same time ; the patches were each 

 S yards square, and managed as follows :— When 

 lecnndation, which w allowed to proceed without 

 •distance, was finished, the whole of the Rape was 

 carefully removed, so as to prevent the possibility 

 of any R ape ceding with the Turnips, the 

 Turnip seed was collected in due course, and two 

 o-yard plots sown with it during the present 

 srimmer. The resulting crop, which is just 

 now in vigorous growth, consists of malformed 

 and diminutive Turn,] freely one being of 

 normal shape, presenting either double crowns or 

 forked roots, and with these, which are themselves 



A machine to be capable of 

 executing any of the customary operations of tillage, by 

 the circular method proposed, over half an acre of land, 

 must be nearly 84 feet in length. Now the first impres- 

 sion affecting the mind of the farmer on reading this 

 will not arise, probably, so mudi from the fact that this 

 machine will be longer than any he has been accustomed 

 to use, as from an idea how expensive will be the me- 

 chanism or interior works required to fill up this machine 

 so as to render it capable of executing the usual 

 processes— such as tilling or grinding up the soil, sow- 

 ing seeds, hoeing weeds, harrowing or compressing light 

 lands, &c. He will naturally say — " It an 8-feet drill 

 now costs me 207., what will one of 80 feet cost I" and 

 so on through the whole series of tillage instruments 

 required. I beg him at once to dismiss all fear from 

 his mind, since I am not going to propose he shall 

 continue to pursue any such expensive arrangements as 

 are now in vogue to attain his ends in the field. 



The reference to this question of economy in con- 

 trivance brings me to the consideration of that point 

 which I only alluded to in my last letter — viz., if the 

 English farmer desires to introduce and profitably 

 apply that economical power steam in the place of the 

 living horse, he must in a measure return to that sim- 

 plicity of operating in the field from which he is fast 

 departing. I will here state that in the course of my 

 investigation on this subject of steam cultivation (when 

 pursued some years back with closer application than I 

 can now devote to it), I elicited the following important 

 deduction, viz. :— That you cannot with profit employ 

 an expensive permanent mechanic agent on a cheap 

 temporary operation. Now, I beg to call the farmer's 

 and mechanist's particular attention to this axiom 

 since it is the law by which I work, and the key 

 to all my propositions in this matter of the farmer's 

 field practice. It is through the 

 that deduction or 

 dence : 



axiom 



— possession of 

 I can write with confi- 





but oiice or twice a day between London and^Grle^T 

 wich it would be unprofitable ; or if it had to 

 travel but twice a week between London and Bir- 

 mingham it would not pay ; or even if fiuc h 

 a permanent piece of mechanism ran every hour 

 between London and Greenwich for one month, and was 

 then put aside in a shed for six months — it would not 

 pay. Why is this ?— simply because the important 

 axiom I have offered to your notice would be infringed- 

 that is, the nature of the machine employed (which is* 

 permanent) not agreeing with the nature of the require- 

 ment, which is temporary. Let us now apply the same 

 axiom to certain agricultural examples. We will take 

 first, reaping machines : now it will happen that when- 

 ever the farmer's chief produce shall fall to a natural 

 price these machines must fail, because we have in them 

 a permanent mechanism, invented to perform an opera- 

 tion which is temporary, viz , reaping ; for nine months 

 in the year these unphilosophical machines will be rust- 

 ing in a shed, and the money they have cost lost to the 

 farmer and his country ; the same with the hay-tedding 

 machine — here we have a permanent mechanism in- 

 vented for a temporary operation, and what is 

 the result? — for ten months in the year this 

 mechanism will be rusting and profitless. Again, 

 we have had permanent mechanism invented to per- 

 form the very temporary operation of dibbling ! — 

 and even a liquid manure machine (unless it be 

 convertible to other purposes) cannot maintain its 

 ground, when prices fall. Why is this sure to occur ! 

 Bemuse all these inventions offend the mechanical 

 axiom I have propounded, viz. : That you cannot 

 employ permanent mechanism to perform a temporary 

 operation, unless the mechanism employed be so inex- 

 pensive in proportion to the benefit derived, or the 

 price paid for the article produced be very high. But 

 I may sum up my views on the point in this form, viz. : 

 That mechanism being expensive and permanent in its 

 nature must be continually employed all the year round. 

 Now, no farmer will deny that the most striking charac- 

 teristic of his field operations, is, that they are tem- 

 porary. Hence every true inventor would say, " Then 

 so must the mechanism be ;" and proceed to construct 

 accordingly. I shall follow such a course, leaving it 

 quite open to the agricultural mechanist to put his per- 

 manent mechanism in the place of my temporary con- 

 trivances if he shall think it advisable or judicious, 

 after hearing my arguments. 



We will now proceed to invent a machine and com- 

 bine its mechanism. We will lay bare the whole pro- 

 cess of invention required to fashion a tillage machine, 

 which shall not only perform one, but nearly all the 

 customary operations of the field. It will be recollected, 

 that when we sought to discover the "method" whereby 

 the versatile powers of steam could be applied with its 

 usual efficiency in the field, we had to interrogate 

 nature ; we have now to search out the particular 

 mechanism or means through whose use we can till 

 land, sow seeds, hoe weeds, irrigate growing, cut or 

 collect matured crops, &e. ; to obtain the necessary in- 

 formation on this point we must leave nature, and 

 apply direct to common sense and past experience. 

 Our case is this, viz., we have half an acre of land to 

 cultivate in two and a half minutes of time — we are 

 supposed to have decided that it shall be cultivated on 

 the circular method : and in consequence that it will 

 require a machine of nearly 84 feet in length, extending 

 from a fixed point; and acting like a moveable radius. The 

 point now to be elucidated is, how shall we fill, or fit up 

 the whole length of the machine with mechanism adapted 

 to execute all the known labours of tillage, and also 

 capable of doing the work in an effective manner \ Now, an 

 inventor must first obtain the right elements or materials 

 necessary for his purpose, before he can combine them ; 

 hence he would proceed thus— he would ask, 1st, Whafc 

 is the characteristic of the operations connected with 

 tillage ? Answer— They are temporary, only lasting 

 for a short time. Then, he would say, So must my 

 mechanism be. 2dly, Are they varying or unvarying? 

 Answer — Ever-varying. Then so must my mechan- 

 ism be capable of continual variation — first for one 

 purpose, then for another. 



He would now proceed to ask, What is the object 

 sought for by the farmer in the field ? The answer 

 would be, To produce a thing of life, called a plant ; 

 in fact, to manufacture a real living object, from a real 

 live seed and soil. Upon discerning the result of this 

 interrogation, a new and unexpected light would break 

 in upon his mind, and he would see that it was no longer 

 a dead material (as in other arts) he had to work upon ; 

 or a dead object to be manufactured, but a real thing of 

 life ; it was no longer like dead hay in the barn 

 he had to assail by mechanical contrivances; it 

 was no longer dead and dried straw lie had to deal with, 

 like the steam -thresher in a farm-yard, but real living 



by the aid of that axiom I can tread in a right objects to be manufactured. This was the main problem 

 path, whilst the agricultural mechanist having no such he had before him ! At first the inventor will seem 

 rule or guide is liable to greaterror in the nature of the lost for information. If by putting a handful of Turnip 

 mechanism he constructs for the farmer's use. I will seeds in at one end of a box, and then by turning a few 



wheels acting upon 



pinions, &c, he had to grind out 5 tons of full-grow 11 

 Turnips, the thing would seem simple enough and m 

 strict accordance with his experience, because he would 

 then have only to comply with approved rules and 

 analogy, and they would carry him through ; but he 

 finds directly he leaves the manufacrure of the dead 

 materiel in the barn, and enters the field, he is brought 

 into contact with the manufacture of life in the form ot 



I will 

 briefly illustrate by examples what I mean by my j ingeniously contrived cast-iron 

 axiom of " You cannot, with certain profit, employ a ' - : ~ : — c " u ~ U ~ A *~ ~" : "' " " 

 permanent mechanism on an operation temporary in its 

 nature." I employ illustration, because I think the 

 best way to become acquainted with a thing is to view 

 it in respect to things which have relation to or simi- 

 larity with it. Let us take first a railway locomotive. 

 Now, this is an expensive permanent piece of mechanism, 

 invented to convey passengers, &c, between towns, 



plants ^n a^™!*? R a °™ tru^H"™*!' 1 . 8eVeral which is on, y a cheap temporary operation. Since "it . a vegetable. He finds the homestead and the field are 

 v <*u apocrypnai nape, with a few of the true 'has been discovered that if a locomotive were to travel I two totally distinct departments, and the object of each 



