Steam Culture. 
Am. 
any supi)ly of fertilisers. A cliief desideratum, therefore, for 
these soils is a new plant, that will either form a network of 
small roots itself, or, at least, not prevent other plants from com- 
mencing their career under its shade. 
I was disposed to attribute the failure chiefly to the chalk ; it 
appeared to me that when the tap-root struck on the chalk rock 
the plant was poisoned. Professor Voelcker does not confirm 
this view. He writes, " Allow me to suggest that the presence 
of lime in your soil is not likely to be the cause of the failure 
which you have experienced. I am not acquainted with a single 
cultivated crop that is injured in any way by the presence of 
lime in the soil, and I imagine that a leguminous crop would be 
the least likely of all to be hurt by lime." He considers that we 
must look deeper for the cause of sterility which is connected 
with these black soils, not only in reference to lupines but like- 
wise to other crops, and has kindly promised that he will 
endeavour to trace out the baneful influence. 
Cambridge, 
XXII. — On the Present Aspect of Steam Culture. 
By p. H. Frere. 
Four years have now passed since Mr. Fowler's Steam Cultivator 
(in competition with that invented by Mr. Smith, of Woolston), 
first appeared on the trial-ground of the Royal Agricultural 
Society at Chelmsford, and again at the adjourned meeting at 
Boxted Lodge ; and it is two years since the 500/. prize was 
awarded to Mr. Fowler at Chester, as the inventor of that " Steam 
Cultivator, which in the most efficient manner turned over the 
soil, and was an economical substitute for the plough or spade." 
Since that time a very able Essay has appeared in this Journal, 
vol. XX., 1859, by Mr. J. A. Clarke, giving — 1st, a history of 
the various efforts, made on different principles, to provide a 
substitute for the horse-plough ; and 2ndly, rendering an account 
of our practice so far as it was established down to the close of 
the autumn of 1858. Moreover Mr. J. C. Morton has read before 
the Society of Arts a very striking and suggestive paper on ' The 
Forces used in Agriculture,' with special reference to Steam ; and 
finally, in June, 1860, Mr. Wells, of Booth Ferry House, 
Howden, read to the London Central Farmers' Club a valuable 
paper, on which great pains had evidently been bestowed, on 
'The Use of Steam Power in Agriculture.' 
Moreover, statements have appeared in our newspapers, in 
which a profit of thousands of pounds was spoken of as realised ; 
and yet practically steam cultivation is still struggling into notice, 
