402 
Steam Culture. 
with much of obscurity about its path, with many misgivings on 
the part of bystanders Avho consider tliemsclvos practical men, 
and yet with tlie brightest and, as 1 trust, the best-founded 
promise for the future. 
It may be questioned how, in this Journal, subjects should be 
regarded, which are confessedly in a somewhat transitional 
state, and how far statements should be sanctioned and views 
admitted which a larger experience may hereafter modifv. To 
this objection, it may be replied — 1st, that the principle of pro- 
curing a record, however imperfect, of an existing Agricultural 
Status, has been recognised in our long series of County Essays ; 
and 2Ddly, it may be urged that it is more important that the 
Society should promote the accomplishment of a design by 
testing statements already promulgated, and by suggesting 
inquiry on those heads on which information is still defective, 
than that it should simply chronicle triumphs already per- 
fected. 
The object of these pages, then, is to review, however imper- 
fectly, the present aspect of steam cultivation, not with the hope 
of speaking authoritatively on any of the points at issue, but 
rather of promoting investigation, and enlisting public attention, 
in anticipation of the larger experiments and more exact discus- 
sion which the next Leeds Meeting promises to afford. 
The subject has already assumed far other proportions than 
those which caught the eye at Colchester and Boxted, where it 
was held that because (according to an estimate accepted by the 
judges), the ploughing could be done by horses for 75. per acre, 
whereas by steam it was estimated at 7s. 2d., therefore, that the 
prize was not won according to the terms specified in its an- 
nouncement. Most thoughtful men will now admit that the 
main question before us is — whether clay lands shall, for the 
first time in the history of civilization, receive an adequate and 
reasonable amount of tillage ; and that one of our difficulties is 
soberly to estimate the indirect gain to which this improvement 
will lead, even if the power employed should be as costly, or 
nearly as costly, as that which it replaces. 
Whether we appeal to science or to history, we shall alike be 
told that, of late, strong soils have been unduly depreciated. 
The chemist speaks confidently of the stores of mineral wealth 
locked up in them ; and the antiquarian knows well, that v»hen 
all farming processes were alike rude, the strong soils were the 
spots most often chosen by the gentry for their residences, and 
those on which the hand of the tax-gatherer lighted most 
heavily. Partial improvements adapted to light soils have for 
some time disturbed this balance ; but a capitalist seeking in- 
vestment in land, if he notes the signs of the times, may even 
