620 



Report to H.R.H. the President 



Waggons. — It is difficult to conceive why the use of waggons is still 

 retained in particular districts, unless for the purpose of wearing out 

 what has been already paid for, and cannot be disposed of without a great 

 sacrifice. The fact that those who use waggons are also obliged to have 

 carts for leading manure, root crops, &c,, ought to decide the question, 

 inasmuch as it necessarily follows that a double amount of capital is 

 required in the first instance, and greater expense sustained ever after in 

 repairs, renewals, and providing house-room for this unnecessary number 

 of wheel-carriages. On a large farm it is certainly convenient to have a 

 waggon for the removal of poles, furniture, or other bulky articles ; but 

 these are exceptional cases, and the ordinary routine of farm-work can be 

 at least as well carried on by single horse carts as by waggons. This has 

 been proved on several diff'erent occasions by experimental trials, under- 

 taken by the respective advocates of two and four wheeled vehicles 

 for the express purpose of deciding the point. The great necessity at 

 present existing for the introduction of every practicable economy will 

 doubtless eventually substitute light carts for waggons, and in the mean- 

 while something would be gained by introducing light, cheap, pole- 

 waggons in the place of the cumbrous shaft-waggons which are too 

 frequently met with. 



Mr. Crosskill's waggon was considered a very good specimen of an 

 improved waggon, being light, low, and cheap (price 26/., including 

 both pole and shafts). The advantages of a pole over shafts are, that 

 horses can draw a greater weight when yoked abreast than at length ; 

 that two horses share the load down hill which is frequently injuriously 

 heavy for one ; and that the team can turn in less room, and is altogether 

 more manageable. — H. S. Thompson. 



Mr. Busby, it will be observed, by placing his shafts on the side 

 of the cart, has h)wered his cart. He has lowered it as much as 

 one in four, thereby diminishing the toil of filling carts with dung, 

 stones, earth, &c., to the amount of one quarter. If we calculate 

 how many thousand arms are employed in this way throughout 

 England for many weeks in the year, we shall find that this im- 

 provement, simple as it is, will save no small aggregate amount of 

 misapplied strength to the country at large. 



Having gone through the three classes of implements with 

 which the land is first prepared, the crops next cultivated, and 

 the grain afterwards harvested, and having found them to stand 

 well the test of economy by which all machines must be tried, we 

 have now to examine the fourth, by which the corn is lastly 

 made ready for market. 



IV. Preparation for Market. 

 1. Moveable Steam-engines. 



Every visitor of the Agricultural department must have been 

 struck with the little steam-engines, which, though of pigmy 

 dimensions if compared with the great railway racers, showed the 

 same compactness of form and the same disposition to work. 

 They connected the ruder tools of husbandry with machinery 



