the Royal Agricultural Society. 
21 
to the aid of British agriculture, and have rendered possible 
the unusual expenditure now being incurred for the purchase 
of improved machinery, so that this outlay, though appa- 
rently rash and hazardous, is really a work of necessity, an 
indispensable condition of the British corn-growers holding his 
own. Few farm'ers probably have reasoned the matter out in 
this way; but with characteristic sagacity and pluck they have 
rightly read the signs of the times, and resolutely adopted the 
remedy. 
Steam-Cultivation. — The advantages of steam-cultivation, when 
applied in suitable situations, were well described by Mr. Ruck, 
of Castle Hill, Cricklade, in a clear and instructive statement, 
made last May at the opening of a discussion on the subject at 
the Society's rooms, Hanover-square.* If all farms were as well 
adapted for the steam-plough as that of Castle Hill, and if all 
farmers possessed as much capital and energy as Mr. Ruck, little 
more need be said on tlfe subject than to wisli them every success 
in their new career. 
A large portion of England is, however, let in small holdings, 
and mapped out in fields of every imaginable size and shape ; 
and it is evidently impracticable in such cases to introduce 
steam-cultivation as practised by Mr. Ruck, and other large 
occupiers, whose farms have been duly prepared for the new 
system. It therefore becomes a question of great interest whether 
steam-cultivation can only become general when the existing 
large number of small farms shall have been consolidated into 
a small number of large ones. In the first place, it is necessary 
to consider what is implied by the consolidation of farms. It 
seems but a simple matter for a landowner to issue the fiat. Let 
half-a-dozen small farms be consolidated into one large one ; the 
first idea realised being that some miles of old crooked fences 
and some scores of hedgerow trees would disappear, and be 
replaced by a few straight fences, laid out with special reference 
to the requirements of steam-cultivation. So far all would be 
serene : land would be gained by the removal of the fences ; and 
.the fewer the trees which are tolerated on arable land the better 
for the tenant, the proprietor, and the public. 
♦The next step is not such plain sailing. Pulling down six 
homesteads, ill-arranged and incomplete though they may be, and 
building a good house and set of farm-offices, are expensive opera- 
tions, and it is neither agreeable nor convenient to repeat them too 
often in these prosaic days, when Aladdin's lamp is no longer avail- 
able even to the most devout worshipper of the Prophet. But the 
* 'Journal,' vol. xxiv. p. 610. 
