614 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
harness to take off. The laboui-er therefore makes the most of his time ; 
he has not to walk, in the morning, first to the stable and then to the 
field ; but he goes direct from his home to the field, and returns direct 
to his home as soon as the day's work is done. The land works 
better and quicker after rain when steam-ploughed than when horse- 
ploughed. In fact, I have been drilling on clay land in wet weather, 
when my neighbours could not get upon their gravel or brashy land. 
I find the soil, when under steam cultivation, is much improved by 
atmospheric influences ; and if (as has been stated) the rainfall is 
26 inches, it will seldom do any damage to land so managed. The 
same effects may be noticed in the case of garden allotments-, which do 
not often require draining in consequence of their superior cultiva- 
tion. 
Again, I find that superphosphate will act much better upon strong 
land after being cultivated by steam than after horse-power. This I 
attribute to the finer tilth produced. Superphosphate upon clay land 
in a rough state will do no good ; but it will accomplish wonders 
upon such soils if worked down fine. 
Further, imder steam cvdture you increase the size of the worms ; 
and there is no better criterion than this of the state of land and its 
fitness to grow a crop : where you have no wonns you will have no 
corn. It is rather strange that nitrate of soda kills the worms in 
half-an-hour from the time it is sown. I do not know how to account 
for that ; but doubtless the Eoyal Agricultural Society, with the great 
amoimt of science which it has at its command, can explain why, 
where there are the largest worms and the greatest quantity of them, 
there you will have the largest crop ; and why nitrate of soda kills the 
worms within half-an-hour of its being sown. Whilst referring to 
worms, I would observe that no grass-land which is subject to worm- 
cast can be of a good quality ; this is the result of the observations 
Vi'hich I have made for the last five-and-twenty years. 
With regard to the outlay which steam-cultivation requires, if you 
can do as much work per day by the steam-power I have mentioned as 
with 30 horses, the prime cost for the power I should put as equal, 
allowing that 30 horses with harness cost 900/., and the implements 
they work 100/., together lOOOZ., whilst the prime cost of a 14-horse 
set cultivator is 945?. There is yet another reason in favour of steam- 
cultivation, namely, that farmers now generally use thrashing machines, 
and upon a rough calculation the outside cost for thrashing on a farm 
of 800 acres would be about 8()/. a year, and on the same farm the 
horse-cultivation would come to 800Z. There is a greater margin, then, 
for saving where you have an outlay of 800Z., than where you have one 
of only 80Z. 
The plough, from its wedgc-liko form, will tiirn over a greater 
weight of soil with less cost than any implement that has yet been 
brought out, but with the cultivator you go an extra depth, and you 
break the pan without bringing up the subsoil to the surface. The 
pace of the plough, too, is of very great importance. Witli the horse- 
system, to plough for a show-field you must go extremely slow, that the 
fiUTOW may be turned over without being broken ; but with steam-power, 
