Five Years' Progress of Steam Cultivation. 411 
they occupy, must indirectly but certainly tend to the benefit of 
the landowner. Thus interest and equity alike require the pro- 
prietor to assist the tenant bv those clearances and provisions 
which alone can develope the lull advantages of steam husbandry. 
What share of these preparatory labours ought to fall respectively 
upon owner and occupier, — whether liberal covenants as well as 
firm roads and deep drains should be furnished gratis by the 
landlord, or an augmented rent be demanded for facilities that 
will add to the farmer's income, — depends very much upon the 
position of the parties concerned ; seeing that while the steam 
plough may be a fund of profit to the tenant who is already 
flourishing, it may be barely a means of salvation to the man 
struggling for subsistence under the disadvantages of a high rent, 
a low corn-market, and a soil difficult to manage. 
Returning to our comparison between the moveable and sta- 
tionary engine systems, there are various points of advantage in 
one which may be considered as fairly counterbalanced by different 
advantages in the other. Thus, the stationary engine can fre- 
quently dispense with the labour and cost of water-carting. 
Mr. Alartin, near Boston, always has water in ditches for the 
engine suction-pipe to ' feed bv. Mr. Bradshaw, of Knowle, 
has dug pools and drains, supplying every station which the 
engine need occupy in his 30 and 40 acre fields. Against 
this advantage in certain situations, may be set the fewer 
number of removals of engine and windlass, or shiftings of 
rope and pulleys, required bv the moveable engine plan. Both 
systems meet with difficulties and successes. I have seen the 
claw-anchors of the roundabout rope-pullevs strip through a • 
yielding soil, and travel for yards away from the headland, — to 
obviate which two anchors were placed one behind the other ; 
and the difficulty of placing anchors in some kinds of land by 
any reasonable amount of labour, so as to hold against a great 
strain, operates in such situations against the perfect tightness 
and carrying of the rope, except bv an immoderate use of rope- 
porters.* Mr. Elliot, of Tarbert Mains, Rossshire, fixes stout 
posts in the ground at 40-\ard intervals around a field, and shifts 
the pulley along a strong chain hung bv rings to the rounded 
tops of each pair of posts in succession. The holes for the posts, 
4 feet deep, are so few that they are dug while steam is getting 
* Mr. Collinson Hall's great iron corkscrew, -which is driven into the ground, 
may on some soils be a good substitute for the anchor. When it is to be fixed, a 
shovelful of earth is first taken out. and some water poured into the hole to 
facilitate the operation. One man then balances the screw, some C feet long, 
while another turns a lever of about the same length inserted into a ring at the 
screw-head. When driven home, this ring stands about Ij feet above ground. 
Though the earth was dry at Worcester, the operation was quickly and easily 
«flfected,— P. H. F, 
