Steam Culture. 
427 
foul, and yet we make a cheaper and better fallow here than on 
the ordinary wheat-stubble. Instead of having- endless harrow- 
ings (whicii break and disperse as many rootlets as they bring 
knots to the surface), followed by costly and imperfect pickings, 
we can, with management, leave all but cultivating to atmos- 
j)heric agencies — the farmer's best assistants after all. If the 
rain-fall is then considerable, evaporation is very active, and the 
power of the sun's rays when they shine being very great, the 
process of withering goes on rapidly, and the land may be stirred 
at short intervals with advantage.* Under such circumstances 
the inversion of the soil is not indispensable, if it is not a waste 
of time. In most seasons this same rule would apply to the 
month of September, and probably to March, though that is not 
the time to commence a fallow. 
Yet, after all, time and observation will alone decide this ques- 
tion ; and the autumn just past was singularly unfavourable for 
such observations : the few opportunities, however, which I 
enjoyed, in addition to written testimony, make me hopeful of 
the result, not only for root-fallows, but also in preparation for 
wheat on strong soils. 
There is yet another aspect of the question which calls for 
early attention. The difficulties which stand in the way of 
steam-cultivation are not solely or chiefly mechanical, dependent 
on the skill and enterprise of the agricultural engineer. In order 
to pave the way for its introduction, the owner or occupier of 
land will often find that he has much to do which will require 
both time and outlay. To deal fairly by the steam-plough, the 
size, shape, and situation of the fields, and the condition of the 
roads, ought to be fairly adapted to its use. In many parts this 
is not now the case, but the movement in that direction is active, 
and the incentives various and powerful. 
Our affair is especially with strong soils : these were the first 
occupied by the feudal chiefs, the most coveted by their depend- 
ants, the earliest distributed, and the most subdivided ; more- 
over they were the natural sites of forests, and these, in some 
parts, have never been more than partially cleared, whilst in all 
the timber has not only a tendency to perpetuate itself, but to 
re-occupy any neglected corner. 
Here, too, began and multiplied ditches — the feeble precursors 
of drains — whilst the attendant hedge was the readiest resource 
for the growth of bushes, where these were wanted either for 
fire-wood, or to fill the primitive drain before pipe-tiles were in 
* A clay-land farmer, ivho sows trefoil for early slieep-feed to save his pastures 
in May. will perhaps find that, after the trefoil has spent itself, he may yet make 
as cheap and good a fallow as if he had devoted the whole year to the work, and 
that at a time when he has little to distract his attention. 
VOL. XXI. 2 G 
