

666 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE 



„ rafter page close-written to prove how . us are little clearer than in London : we get them 



through page »nw f»6^ v^v-».v U „ v r .« . 



clearly and fundamentally the writer misunderstood 

 the whole purport and principle which I had en- 

 deavoured to convey. I will try to re- state the 



whole question. 



Before the discovery of Steam-power, and its appli- 

 cation to machinery, there Was no such thing as a 

 mechanical power that could be carried about, and 

 applied where and when and how you pleased, except 

 animal power. The plough, the spade, or the hoe (with 

 their varieties), were the only possible modes of effect- 

 ing the task of cultivation. The comparatively recent 

 discovery of steam-power altered the condition* of 

 human life in this particular. The modes of action to 

 which cultivation was before limited, and which are 

 exemplified in the use of the three instruments just 

 Darned, became, on the discovery of steam, no longer the 

 necessary and only modes of performin 



tillage. From the nature ~ ~ ~ ~- ^ 



certain that whenever that new Power was applied to 

 this act, it would be through an instrumentality as 



r _- __ -,- 



of things it was morally 



spade. 



? 



nearly freight-free." 



Is it not astonishing, with occasional facts before us 

 such as these, and some not very far behind them at 

 home in England, that since the first introduction of 

 Steam power to the notice and assistance of mankind, 

 nobody has ever yet attempted to apply it in its own way 

 to the definable and simple work of cultivation. It is 

 put to cut chaff, to make sawdust, to granulate powder, 

 to make pins' heads, to reduce all sorts of coarse material 

 into fine — and all by wheels, — circular motion, and 



but nobody 



practice from 



gation 



irrigation of our meadow ^ thVV^ tu 

 of Flanders, and the liquid mn. llquid ^nure 

 from that practised ta?Efa2 B ff 8 ** ?£& 

 the metropolis. Of tCdfe^"^ <*£* 

 word. The two practices which? We Dee <* bEL* 

 to each other are those Jf£^ x ?^ £fi ' 



is but although 



*i. 



them and the others "vetltkT 6 1S ,ess t^Sl! 

 able ; for the Flemish* f^J fe^* ^ 

 liquid manure is worthless, compmr'T^^ 

 unless it undergoes a certain fcST J* S P*2 

 a process which the sewage matte" 2 S men *&^ 



- y > - - -r - , doe s not undergo ; consequently ft* e met *l* 



soil 8 inches deep and 6 feet wide, and leave it behind . parallel, nor the latter experiment f ? ractlces We * 



granulated to as coarse or fine a texture as the nature ' ■* "*~- ■— *•— « « F tatai* 



of the seed or season may require, and inverted in its 

 bed. It is not ploughing, it is not digging, it is not bar- 

 ing, raking, hoeing, rolling, scarifying, clod-crushing, 



Rflinrr nrrmViKinor virlrrinrr r»nctinrr frorliovinnr +lio + n*n 



nothing else, for nothing else will it accept, 



can persuade their minds to believe that by the self- 

 same action, and no other, it can cut up a ribbon of 



row in 



a , grubbin n7 __„ __ , , __„_ 07 ._ 



all these are the time-honoured, time-bothered 



~ That result is — a seed-bed 



~c * *i a — ' — - - — 



tbink how total a revolution the application of steam 

 effected to the navigation of a ship, and the locomotion 

 of a carriage, he cannot very well fail to see what is 

 meant by the saying that a new Power requires a new 

 proem. It is a solecism in art, as well as science, to 

 attempt to yoke steam on to a plough. There is no 

 affinity between them]; any more than, as I said once 

 before, between a horse and a spade. 



I have found it inexpressibly difficult to get this 

 leading postulate clearly and once for all understood. 

 Till it is so it is hopeless to attempt to proceed. The 

 idea of an instrument to be dragged through the soil, as 

 a plough is, from one end of a field to another, poisons 

 more or less, not every, but nearly every communica- 

 tion I have received. To those who have understood 

 the matter thus far, I shall seem tiresome in again 

 insisting on it. How difficult it is to tmlearn ! 



When the attempt was first made to run Steam- 

 Carriages on common roads, it was soon found that 

 however good a Macadamised surface might be for a 

 wheel to roll upon, under a Carnage drawn by horses, 

 it broke away into a perfect Gravel-bed when the new 

 Power instead of pulling the Carriage which set the 

 wheels simply rolling underneath, laid hold of the Wheel 

 teelf, and produced the locomotion of the vehicle by 

 forcibly driving the wheels round. The very best 

 road gave way under the severe friction of this new 

 mode of producing locomotion, and so did the tires : 

 and nothing could be done till both road and wheel 

 Were made of solid iron. The new Power required a 

 *ew process. Instead of pulling the Carriage it drove 

 the wlieel, and in driving the wheel it tore up the stones 

 even of a Granite road. 



Now put on your Agricultural Spectacles, and apply 



this parable. When Steam-power is brought into the 



held, (audiat qui aures habet !) it will "play out this 



play over again. Its faculty and virtue consist not in 



pulling vehicles or implements, but in driving wheels : 



ana when Steam-driven wheels will tear up Granite 



roads into shingle and gravel, and move the Carriage 



too, for so it did, only not 'fast enough for modern 



toavellers,) what forbids the hint being taken by the 



audax Japeti genus," that have happily applied so 



many accidental hints before, and the same refractory 



iriant being set to rasp up cleverly and methodically 



imh sharpened Mole-like claws, the tender soil, when 



he has shown his ability to tear so tough a one with 



55!T re / a i^ of his hand? And what forbids, either, 

 that he should spare off a little of his redundant steam 

 m moving his own carcase along, meanwhile, at a pace 

 ofhttle more than half a mile an hour ? "What you 

 save im speed you gain in power ; » and an instrument 

 as broad as Crosskill's Clod Crusher which compE 

 the whole work of tillage, as it moves along, will hard^v 

 be required to go much faster. At that speed it 3d 



?hS« f ° Ur , acres a **-** of 'ploughing not of 

 'harrowing no* „f ^m , Mt * , f - » <** 





want : 



means _ . 



■ and a seed-bed is, simply described, a layer of soil from 

 6 to 12 inches in depth, rendered fine by comminution, 

 • and as far as possible inverted dnring the process. 



You may call this * Theory/ my good Mr. Practical, 

 (whoever you may be,) but I tell you it is Truth : 

 simple, obvious, philosophical, practical Truth. Since 

 the Invention of the Steam Engine, it might and may be 

 done at one process, as easily as before by 20 ; and it 

 will be. Before you depart this life, you will see one 

 more wonder moving upon the face of the earth, some- 

 thing of this form and fashion— to wit — a complete 

 locomotive engine on four wheels, with tires 10 inches 

 broad, and slightly corrugated cross-wise on the face, the 

 fore wheels turning on a transome, the hind ones fixed ; 

 behind them (suspended) a transversed, cylindrical 

 shaft, 3 feet in diameter, from 6 to 8 feet long, reminding 

 you of a cross-breed between a clod-crusher and a hay- 

 tedding machine, armed with case-hardened steel tine- 

 points, in shape like a dog's claw, each tine-point alter- 

 nately long and short, so that the side-lap of each claw 

 may cover the work of the other, and no interval or 

 ridge be left uncut : the extremities of the-cylinder just 

 covering the wheel-tracks. This formidable-looking 

 cylinder of claws you will see raised or depressed at 

 pleasure by the engine-driver, and adjusted to slow or 

 rapid revolutions, not worked by cog-wheels, but bv one 

 of the new metallic bands, geared from the drum of the 

 Engine. That is the " cultivator." A platform from 

 the Engine extends over it, ending in a sort of moveable 

 tail-board, which may be raised or depressed at pleasure, 

 to regulate the settlement of the soil which scatters 

 from it. The revolution of the cylinder is not against 

 but with that of the wheels, not dragging or retarding 

 but helping the advance of the whole machine, which is 



TriAirn/1 nlrvtvil.. & T / 1 . t • ** ._ 



parallel nor the Utter experiment a faK* 8 ** * 

 it maybe practically for its own iZTT*"** 

 said, by way of objection.that termentaW lt "*Jfi 

 but objections of this kind go ™^*T*** 

 be just as opportune to lellW^SSSV'- ?. 



labo ^ 



sewagemanure^olongLsex^HSfsC^ 4 '* 

 Under such circumstances^hemiclrafe^ 

 value with practical men, and with sdentE * * 

 ought not to be otherwise. The grandTu" J '» 

 before us, resolves itself into thl foUoSS^fr 

 sewage matter of towns underwent the Sw?{Z 

 fermentation as it does in Flanders, would itJ»F*f 

 gme_ fertilising effects in the morTS^ 



In the Netherlands, China, and otfcer places whewtk 



liquid manure system ,s successfully practised, a 2 

 of tanks is required, so as to allow a period of eE 

 ten days fermentation. To carry out this utfl 

 therefore, we must either have a system of hue tab 

 in the metropolis, and other towns, or elseat every fan 

 and garden in the country, before it can be succeeM, 

 effected ; and we fear that in the former, sanitary reniii 

 would arise as a serious barrier to the reduction of sua 

 a proposition to practice ; and that in the latter, expense! 

 scarcely less formidable in character to success. Grsntbj 

 however, that both these obstacles are overcome, we hsn 

 still two important ones remaining. Would the liquid. 

 manure system suit the moist climate of Britain ! hi, 

 is the liquid-manjire system of Flanders the. best the 

 can be adopted for that country 1 To both these (joes- 

 tions we are apprehensive that a negative answer mat 

 be given, for the following, among many other reasoss:- 

 On the best cultivated farms in Britain, more lea a 

 generally sustained from an excess of moisture tfca 

 from a deficiency ; and consequently, if this excessmt 

 to be increased, the loss would be still greater. Thisi 

 perhaps more particularly the case with eorn crops; bet 

 green crops are by no means exempt from injury fen 



moisture, for both are liable to suffer, not only in it 

 early ' ~ ' ' " ' _ ■•«.•' i ._ .i_ ._ 



former, *«d$ 



_„„ „J i if , , , -""vnuic, "llll.il is Mill OHJECS UI LUUir I^rOHlIJ, UUt IUSO 1 



moired slowly forward (about half-a-mile an hour) by a approaching towards maturity. In the former, weeds 

 aetached lorce of about two horse-power from the same not [unfrequently spring up, exhausting the soil, md 

 rtin ' Un W%U * choking the young plants ; and in the latter, lodjnfr 



rotting, &c, is the result. Now, under such sirco* 

 stances, the application of liquid manure would not unlj 

 increase the evils arising from an excess of moktere, 



fagM 



?encerf 



SEWAGE MANURE. 





matter ot towns to arable lands at any distance, by means but also reduce the temperature of the soil to* 

 oi steam-power through pipes, has been a favourite one still more injurious to vegetation, while in the abs 



rs, 



We 



•roiimc .n«u » < -i • -Ptonghmgi * clod-crushing,' 



PwhJiunw If tt7 V heS V p,thet Passes in one Com- 

 prenensive act-and word-Cultivation. 



*HtL a \^Z «£ a ™J ««*> scale in Jamaica," 



over which I hT/e ZroT rA ' ^ """^ 3 ° ° thers 

 oxen to a pWi, w?hW \ V pUt from 8 to U 



— y SoJ A&nTluriSroHht SaS^i* ' " d 

 g« > o«« ; to lIKB age their own ^T^J^ ^ 



tit r:izx7™ L this T m ^- 



deal with, who havens Zmlut^tu' PeaSant ^ « 

 ^rk or not as their W v £" { m the f P ower ' and 

 •ems ; for Nature ^11 ?• them ' ? nd 0n their own 



there/the stimuTs to eSSSTk ^ ^ ^ Cheap 

 conceive then the c art T 2 J ant,n g- Yo « may 

 ^acre of land ; and when S?& n « ?"? .****** 

 Steam has been talked n f Ik. . ° f doin ^ tnis h Y 



what would k do in Jamaica a^nST*^ hor8e8 J h i .^. 



People, ^n,, half an acre a day" ( f ° X6n and foHr 

 of the 18lM rf not ft man ig geen .J it 



with not a few ; oui experiments, as far as they have 

 been tried, leave it a question more problematical than 

 ever to practical men. We are afraid that the many 

 favourable reports and conclusions, published on this 

 important question, have been rather hastily arrived at, 

 and that the only available purpose to which liquid 

 manure can be applied, in the moist climate of Britain, 

 is that of irngat.on on Grass lands. Here we can 

 enumerate safe practice with some degree of confidence ; 

 but this rainy-weather system of manuring appears more 

 and more objectionable as we approach it! 



Many overlook the fact that the theory of irrigation is 

 different from that of warping or liquidlanuring Tor 

 says one, look at the fertility of the valley of the Nile • 

 at our water-meadows, says another ; the practice of 

 China and the Netherlands, says a third ; anfwho can 



sewage matter to our hungry soils with snecess, thereby ! 

 rendering us entirely independent of a foreign supvW If 



SSk 51 cattl f; T i e truth of the o,d -^ «$h.[ ' 



muck is the mother of meal," 



the liquid during heavy rains the plants would soflef 



than they now do from a want of food ; anill J* 

 s able to bear un under such unfavourable weatbtt 



abunthuice of tta« 



up 



Again, if soils contain an «~- 



manurial salts which crops require, and if they art 

 naturally of a carbonaceous and aluminous character, tHej 

 will absorb from the moist atmosphere of BnW • 

 sufficiency of moisture to supply the wants of pw»r 

 and, in the generality of seasons, more than a suftcW' 

 If such soils are pro] rly drained, cultivated, ■• 

 manured with solid manure, there will ratbtf 1 ^ 

 tendency to an excess of straw than °therw«*ir 

 hence a deficiency of corn. It is only in excep ^ 

 dry seasons that the crops sustain injury a flg 

 mouths of June and July ; and even in these ytfigj 

 are experienced, the greatest on soils P r p^etiW 

 from an excess of moisture. Cold clay \^^n 

 suffer more than open friable loams frora . a 77^ 

 that in both extremes a deficiency of stra* n«» fc 

 "an exeess of moisture. If the ^ J*!!*y^ 



Semost sceSSf . "? ' u Cann0t be 'l^ned by propor tilth during April and May, it if ^ £; 3 



fm^nSl /- the ° !d Sch ° 01 ' and fro ^ the amount injurvissustainclfromdroughtduringthese^^ 



iTt^ta^ # n r rB ^^ e ^ , ^ OT » obv i«w» if benched in rain, clays are liable to become teW ft 



voL^'L a ^ ,it . 0the8od ' thein " e »se of produce loams leas or more injured from sudden cbanf 



bams to overflow— so much so that w« 

 would h ave to pull them down, and build larger S Hc h 

 is the tram of arguments which we meet with i on thU 

 national question ; but the first and graiul \^SLZ whh 



S3K ^eSnenf * ^^~<> '* "^ 

 mat^r app.Fed ^^"-eShS?^ fT 

 mother of meal . Such being the resuif the n~* 

 tion which naturally ar i S e 8 S for sofu ion s Whv S 

 such and such a practice succeed in one \& Tand 2 

 in another ? And the answer which promptly folWsT. 

 Becanse those who have applied the linu c I in i T J 



•audf^ 



keep the soil open in spring, free from - d ae si'-- 



consolidation, and full of manure, are the gr- „j 



rata to avoid the calamity of scorclung » ^ 



fuly. The principal crops which anfler are^ ^ 



into the ground at t 



frequently suft- r in the first stage oi uic« ^ ^ 

 even here, with a sufficiency of manure m ^taiy* 

 apDlication of clean water would jus'_? e _ oA , r gotf 



<rr0^ 



aewage, and much 



17 W I 



circumstances, experiments 



iive, 

 are 



air 



ainst 



the 



aside the 



eraUy mhere it has 



Turnips, setting asiue . 



«« it u«« u*an tried nuscli 



expend 



la 



iT m some parts 

 fields after mid- 



in in- 



M 



cannot 



true 



principal 



various depths : had I 



•rumen, such as v^ i T a T tM : had X 



are. 

 on 



grow one* 



r,» rt u /*©f P ! P e t0 a ^P 6 Gooseberry bu^h » " wi,« 

 ever heard of the like, a hundred miles from Tendo^ ' 

 With all our shortcoming however thTl London * 

 to the above qnestioo^hy^^SfJS! 8 " 8W ^ 

 >" one place, Ind not in another^ is SSVT^ 



of the Nile m Egypt, for instance, is a different 



w ith such hold the" watering pan an hour over 



- 5 r and jet 



,knt 



A 



each f- ftp 

 we tat*.*" 



I TO _ C !f ' S/fais sufficie 



«*.** 



\f 



Ot 



-a 



intn* 



BO** 



m> saturate tne sou uunuji w*- •*■■ - . i lftr m. 

 in less than an hour it will inevitably ao ^^ 



other hand, if there is not a ^ ffiaeu 2 hle 8 t»te, »- j 

 soil, tiie dailv application of it in » "**™ , ^ the IJ*! 

 suit the growing demands of plants, ,w, ^ pr0 b«w 

 it, a very nice theory. To us it appw ^ tw 

 •tical whether the daily supply oi 





