the Royal Agricultural Society. 
19 
been tho want of an intelligent workman to take charge of the 
engine. 
The rapidity of the change has been quite unexampled in 
agricultural history. At the Newcastle Show, in 184b', only one 
steam-engine was exhibited, which went unrewarded because it 
had been previously shown and had received a prize; and at a 
subsequent Meeting the writer can recollect a grave discussion 
between the Stewards as to the safety of allowing steam-engines 
to get up their steam in the Society's show-yard. Yet at Wor- 
cester there were 135 steam-engines ; and one of the successful 
exhibitors on that occasion has informed us, that though in 1845 
he made only one steam-engine, and not one steam thrashing- 
machine, he has, in the four years 1859-1862, turned out an 
average of 488 engines and 373 steam thrashing-machines per 
annum ! Since 1852 he has sold enough steam-engines to supply 
each member of the Royal Agricultural Society with one. He 
adds, that in the last ten years the average horse-power of the 
engines made by him has risen from 5'52 to 7*87, an increase of 
42 per cent. If the engines furnished by all the makers in the 
same time could be summed up into a grand total, it would 
be seen that already many thousands of steam-engines have been 
purchased for agricultural work ; showing clearly that on the 
farm as well as in the factory the reiyn of steam has commenced. 
The truth of this assertion is every day becoming more ap- 
parent. In the barn and in the stack-yard the steam-engine is 
already without a rival. It would be sheer waste of time to give 
any detailed proof of the superiority of steam to any other avail- 
able power for barn-work, or any calculation of the exact 
number of pence per quarter thus saved by the farmer in pre- 
paring his grain for market. The feats performed by steam in 
the way of thrashing, grinding, chaffing, pulping, slicing, have 
been already chronicled so fully and so frequently of late years 
as to convince all those who will allow themselves to be con- 
vinced by argument. To those who will not, we commend the 
stubborn fact already mentioned — that five thousand steam-engines 
have been sold by one maker since 1852 ! 
One of the main obstacles to the general introduction of steam- 
machines was their heavy cost, which was quite disproportionate 
to the means of a small farmer or the quantity of work to be done 
on his farm. This difficulty has been surmounted by the inter- 
vention of the village capitalist, who has made a comfortable 
livelihood by purchasing a machine or two, and letting them 
out for hire to the small farmers in his neighbourhood. In our 
own district the farms are chiefly small, but thrashing by steam 
is all but universal, whilst the farmers' own horse-machines are 
standing idle and fast rusting into oblivion. 
c 2 
