616 Abstract Report of Agricultmal Discussions. 
fallow wiU be entirely extinguislied. Digging by the steam plough I 
regard as equal to digging by manual labour, the cost of the one being 
6s. as against 21. for the other. Again, rolling will not be required 
any more than it is required under spade husbandly ; and the increase 
of crops I place at one quarter to the acre. The increase of stock 
kej)t must also be very great. In autumn you plough your land, and 
plant it with vetches or rye at one operation, which in the spring of 
the year you feed oS in time for a root crop to follow ; consequently 
your flock of sheep will be greatly enlarged, your root crop will 
be of much greater weight, and of better quality, and the land in 
a much better state for the sheep to lie on, being drier and more 
healthy for the animals than when it has been horse-ploughed, Dm-ing 
the last three or four years I have found that the crop grown after the 
steam plough would come a week or ten days earlier to harvest, whilst 
the sample was in my judgment better and heavier. I have brought 
a sample with me from 400 sacks of red nursery wheat, which I have 
at this moment in my barn. And as to malting barley, whenever I 
have sold any I have always had the maltster sending to me again for 
more, finding that steam-ploughed barley was superior for malting 
purposes. The crops of seeds you will find to be wonderfully better, 
in consequence of the extra depth of cultivation. Clover that will 
hardly stand more than once in five or six years with horse culture, 
you have no difficulty in growing every tkree or four years. 
Upon my farm I have a field of five acres that has been under grass 
for the last sixty years, and it has been valued at 10s. an acre. I 
have left it in the middle of my large steam-ploughed fields to show 
the difference between land imder steam culture and that which is 
under the old system. In the two adjoining fields now under the 
plough we have the promise of five quarters of wheat to the acre at 
least. English farmers must in my opinion resort to the use of 
steam to maintain their position, for the foreigner will be sm-e to do 
so. If by the use of steam I can grow 600 quarters more annually, 
say at 33s. Ad. per quarter, that will amount to lOOOL 
But the benefits accruing from steam culture do not end here ; the 
improvement resulting to the labouring man is also very considerable ; 
extra wages encourage emulation, and a desire is awakened to rise in 
the ranks ; there is more time given for educating the boys, who are 
not required to come at so tender an age into the field. ^ 
With reference to the men in my own employ, my ploughman was 
formerly the ox-man ; and the engine-driver formerly drove the 
thrashing-machine. Dm-ing four years they have not lost a single 
day ; I have had to make no change all that time ; and the prejudice 
amongst the laboui'ers against the steam-plough (for there was a great 
deal of prejudice amongst them at first) is now quite overcome. In 
fact they now take quite as much interest in its successful working as 
I do myself; it is my custom to allow them to knock off work on 
Saturday afternoon at fom- o'clock. 
Some persons entertain mistaken notions with regard to the effect of 
a long rope. I find that the plough travels a few, seconds faster from 
the engine to the anchor, say 400 yards, than from the anchor to 
