874 =608 Tlie Royal Agricultural Society of England. 
of Inspection to inquire into and report upon the results of steam* 
cultivation in the various counties of England and Wales up to 
that date, with special reference to different classes of soils, and 
to different descriptions of ownership of this kind of farming 
machinery, including partnership arrangements and systems of 
hire. One of the three reporters (Mr. J. A. Clarke) thus tersely 
sums up the work of these Committees and the objects with 
which it was undertaken: — 
Its position " The experience of some 140 practical farmers upon an area of 66,000 acres 
in 1866. arable, — consisting of holdings of all sizes, from less than 200 up to 2500 
acres, and averaging 536 acres each ; embracing a great diversitj' of soils, and 
situated in the most varying cUmates, from the draughty east to the rainy west, 
from the chilly north to the sunny south ; an experience derived from four up 
to ten years' employment of all the different forms of apparatus now in use, 
under every system of working, and with every style of management ; an ex- 
perience also, for the most part, investigated upon the spot by ten business 
men, whose names and reputation are staked upon the truthfulness and im- 
partiality of their Reixjrts, — ought to establish the success or demonstrate the 
failure of steam-tillage in this kingdom. And the Society's munificent outlay 
upon the Inquiry will be sanctioned by results, if only a small percentage of 
its members and of the proprietors and tenants of land still under horse cul- 
ture shall be led by the mass of evidence concentrated in the three Reports to 
treat their fields as well as their produce by the j)0wer of the steam-engine." 
These reports will always rank with the classics of agricultural 
literature ; and the evidence which they contain in favour of the 
application of steam power to the cultivation of the soil has 
since been strengthened by the more recent improvements in 
steam-cultivating machinery, the rise in the wages of the agri- 
cultural labourer, and the increased price of horses. Since these 
reports were written the Society has twice submitted steam- 
cultivating machinery to trial ; and on the last occasion, at the 
time of the Wolverhampton Meeting, the investigations were 
more searching than at any other trial of any class of agri- 
cultural machinery. Again, from time to time, medals have 
been awarded for essential improvements in engines, anchors, 
and other separate parts of a steam-cultivating apparatus, while 
the ' Journal ' of the Society has contained reports upon special 
matters connected with steam-cultivation, such as tile influence 
of a very wet autumn, and the management of companies formed 
to extend the hiring system. 
I have given this brief sketch of the Society's efforts to 
stimulate the application of steam to the cultivation of the soil 
as an example of the manner in which its influence has been 
used to promote the improvement of agricultural machinery. 
Its trials are open to the public, and those who prefer to rely 
upon their own judgment have every opportunity of ftnrmin^ 
it for themselves ; while for the benefit of others, the work oi 
adjudication is intrusted to practical farmers, assisted by cmi- 
