Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 407 
Take expedition and economy in the rate of working. With 
the same power of engine and size of fields, the "direct" system 
does more work per day, and more for the money, than the 
" roundabout " does. For proof of which, see the facts and sta- 
tistics of the Worcester and other trials. The advocates of the 
stationary engine admit this point against them ; but contend that 
it is compensated for by other points in their favour. By cultivating 
a field without even going into it, the stationary engine leaves a 
moist headland unpoached by the heavy wheels of engine and 
water-cart. In a small inclosure, where the headland may com- 
prise one-twentieth, or even one-tenth the area of the field, this 
advantage is considerable. Again, though it is not true that the 
moveable engine is obliged to leave the headlands unploughed, 
or that it is unadapted to fields of irregular figure and tortuous 
fences, yet the stationary engine does enjoy greater facilities for 
working the headlands up to the very hedges or ditches, and 
loses less time in adapting its rope to very varying lengths of 
furrow. This may be a point of some moment where a farm is 
choked and pestered with innumerable hedgerows ; but where 
small fields are thrown open as they should be, and the steam 
plough finds several days' work in one inclosure, it is not every- 
body that cares to detain a powerful engine over an awkward head- 
land, or the finishing of a " goring " corner. One Gloucester- 
shire farmer, for instance, worked Mr. Fowler's plough in twenty 
fields, averaging about 30 acres each ; but of the 607 acres only 
548 acres were tilled, leaving 59 acres (or about one-tenth of the 
land) in headlands and angles to be completed by horse-power. 
A whole field neatly finished off may look very creditable to the 
steam-machine ; but pushing on with work (and steam is only " an 
auxiliary," not a monopoliser of the tillage-labour of the farm) 
is often of much more consequence. However, in preparing 
an immediate seed-bed on a wet soil, in any other operation 
where horses' feet would injuriously pound and poach, or in 
working a combined corn-drill and cultivator, it is often a great 
advantage to finish-up a field conjpletely, even at considerable 
delay in shifting anchors, ropes, and implements. The stationary 
engine cuts the best figure in these changes of direction of the 
work ; but still the moveable engine is also perfectly able to 
finish-up irregularly-shaped fields : the anchorage will travel 
alongside any tortuous boundary ; the rope accommodates itself 
to varying lengths of land, or has pieces added or removed, and 
an anchored snatch-block or two will introduce the implement 
into any cramp corner. 
Take, now, the size of fields, as affecting the capabilities of 
the two systems. It is not true that the moveable engine is 
adapted only to large inclosures. It probably accomplishes more 
