320 
Steam Cultivation. 
No. 4 do not by any means prove that the hydrometer gives unre- 
liable results ; for although it is quite true that by substituting 
10 per cent, of water for 10 per cent, of cream, the original 
gravity of the new milk is preserved, it may be observed that 
milk skimmed to that extent cannot be mixed with water without 
becoming so blue and transparent that adulteration cannot be 
practised. At all events if it should occur, no instrument what- 
ever is required to detect it, 
12, Hanover-square, London, July, 1863. 
XX. — The Results of Steam Cultivation. By W. J. Moscrop. 
Prize Essay. 
It has been remarked, to the disparagement of the farmer, that 
while in the course of the last half-century every other industrial 
class of the community have found the means to lessen the expense 
of producing their articles of commerce, he stands alone a notable 
exception, his working expenses not having been sensibly di- 
minished. 
Perhaps this assertion may be in the main correct, and the 
gross outlay incurred in the production of a quarter of wheat 
may be as great now as it was fifty years ago ; but can this be a 
matter of wonder when the great item of expense in its production 
is labour, and while, besides the increased cost of manual labour, 
the farmer's choice of traction power was confined to the sluggish 
ox or grain-consuming horse ? 
If we take as our point of departure the institution of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, there can be no doubt that from that 
period great advances have been made, and much ingenuity 
displayed in the invention of new cultivators, as well as in the 
improved construction of our standard implements; yet, what- 
ever be the extent of these improvements, it is clear that while 
the farmer lacked a cheap traction power, his means of econo- 
mising were but slight. After years of experiment, expensive and 
laborious, that all-powerful, untiring agent, the steam-engine — 
the great abridger of time and labour — is now about to prove to 
the farmer as tractable and serviceable in the field, when attached 
to the plough, as it has hitherto been while setting in motion the 
various machinery of the farm-yard. 
In the following pages the writer proposes to state in detail the 
results of steam cultivation on a clay soil which have come under 
his own observation within the last three years ; for defects in 
style and composition he asks the reader's indulgence, as he lays 
no claim to literary ability. The most valuable part of our 
