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SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
WHAT THE STEAM ENGINE DOES. 
I’ll tell you what the Steam Engine does : 
It rows, it sculls, it propels, it screws, 
It lifts, it lowers, it warps, it tows, 
It drains, it plows, it reaps, it mows, 
It pumps, it bores, it irrigates, 
It dredges, it digs, it excavates, 
It pulls, it pushes, it draws, it drives, 
It splits, it planes, it saws, it rives, 
Ilf carries, scatters, collects and brings — 
It blows, it puffs, it halts, it springs, 
It breaks, condenses, opens and shuts — 
It picks, it drills, it hammers, it cuts. 
It shovels, it washes, it mixes' and grinds — 
It crushes, it sifts, it bolts, it binds, 
It threshes, winnows, punches and kneads — 
It moulds, it stamps, it presses it feeds, 
It rakes, it scrapes, it bores, it shaves, 
It runs on land, it rides on v/aves ; * 
It mortices, forges, rolls and rasps — 
It polishes, rivets, files and clasps — 
It brushes, scutches, cards and spins — 
It puts out fires, and papers pins ; 
It weaves, it winds, it twists, it throws, 
It stands, it lies, it comes, it goes, 
It slits, it turns, it shears, it hews. 
It coins, it prints — aye, prints the news; 
And to its magic, the printer owes 
The speed with which his printing goes — 
For how could his dailies and weeklies shine. 
Were it not for the tireless Steam Engine I 
ST^AM MACHINERY FOR THE FAR3I. 
At a late meeting of the New York Farmers’ Club, the 
Secretary, (Judge Meigs) read the following interesting 
report on Steam for farm purposes. It is copied from the 
London Farmers' Magazine for June,. 1859 : 
The Steam Plow — Its Progress . — We already thresh, 
clean and grind our corn, bring home, feed and sell our 
stock — all by means of that indispensable agent, steam. 
A homestead without a steam engine is almost as half 
finished as without a mistress, or a parish church without 
a parson. Of course, there are, still, minor matters scarce- 
ly as yet brought within the field of its operations. But 
these are all bound to follow, and we shall soon grub up 
our roots, pump our water, warm our cattle in winter 
and cool them in summer, as methodically as we cut chaff 
or winnow wheat. No wonder, then, that the recent dis- 
cussion at the Farmers’ Club centered almost entirely 
here. Much had been already accomplished, and as much 
or more must follow. Once realize plowing by steam, 
and drilling, draining, hoeing, and like work on'a farm, 
must follow “naturally.” But at this point we stop. The 
very Alps of our rnzrch onward have yet to be crossed. 
However near we are, it is palpable that we are yet in 
the hands of enthusiasts and patriots. The farmers hold 
back — they shout, “Will it pay I How can you do it I 
Let’s see it first !’’ There are some tenant farmers who 
have taken to steam power to cultivate their lands, who 
believe they profit by it. But we don’t hear of any of 
them at the Farmers’ Club. That steam cultivation will 
come, everybody admits. But has it cornel Prince 
Albertis about putting Fowler & Smith’s apparatus to 
work. 
At the London Farmers’ Club, May 2, 1859, Mr. Mechi 
went fully into the subject. He has, by horse plow and 
subsoiler, broken up land very deep, and proposes to 
break it up by steam plow a yard deep. 
Mr. Smith said : Steam cultivation is an accomplished 
fiict, and profitably so — therefore is practically attained. 
Fowler & Smith have been practically proved superior to 
h'orse power, in saving cost and in effect, and the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England has sealed it by an award 
and medal. Who shall say that we shall not have Scari- 
fiers and Grubbers, by one hundred horse power, go down 
four, five or six feet. I have done best on a soil acci- 
dentally fourteen feet deep, by a filling in. 
Halkett’s Guideway Steam Cultivator is noble, simple 
and unerring. Boydell’s Traction Engine is now draw- 
ing coals into Manchester at a penny a tnn a mile on the 
highway. 
Collinson Hall’s Portable Engine, 320 pounds pressure, 
burns, in a day’s work of 10 hours, 3s. 6d. worth af coals. 
Lord Willoughby d’Fresby’s California, a portable en- 
gine, on exhibition in 1851 at the Crystal Palace, London, 
is one of the most perfect and powerful engines I ever 
saw. 
John C. Morton compares horse and steam power, and 
convinces me that steam is twice as cheap as horse. A 
farm of 200 acres can fully employ a steam engine. 
Small farms can agree to hire, or can keep one. Steam 
will do all the work in much less time than horses. At 
the Cattle Show, steam cut, in 3 minutes, hay into chaff, 
128 pounds ; roots for sheep, 314 pounds ; for bullocks, 
620 pounds; roots pulped, 490 pounds; thick oil-cake 
broken, 165 pounds; corn (wheat) winnowed in 13 
minutes, 761 pounds ; do. dressed, 490 ; do. threshed and 
dressed, 200 sheaves ; barley threshed and dressed in 5 
minutes, 100 sheaves. 
Fowler plowed 6 by 9 (a 3 horse work), an acre in an 
hour at the cost of Os. 2d. per acre. 
On our Railway, we carry 240 tuns of coal a mile in 3 
minutes for two pence. 
The manufacturers of England employ 150,000 engines 
equal to 3,000,000 horses. 
Manchester, in a circle of 20 miles, has 20,(r00 engines. 
Halkett’s plan is parallel rails over the field; deeper 
cultivation between them and no hardening the soil by 
carts and wagons, I can till, hoe, &c , 150 to 200 acres 
in 24 hours, and not a foot is set upon the soil. The 
whole can be drilled in 24 hours ready for seeding. I 
spread liquid manure rapidlyiii I water it for a shilling an 
acre ; I mow grass for less than the shilling an acre. 
Cost of Engines : Smith’s, :e500; plows 7 acres per 
day. Fowler’s i:570 ; plows 8 acres per day. Smith’s 
costs per day at work, .£2 3s. 4d, Fowler’s costs per day 
at work, £2 Is. 7d, 
De'finitions. — C harity — The only thing we can give 
away without losing it. 
Child, Spoilt — An unfortunate victim, who proves the 
weakness of its parents’ judgment, much more forcibly 
than the strength of their affection. 
Competency — A financial horizon which recedes as we 
advance. The word is, by no means, of indefinite mean- 
ing. It always signifies a little more than we possess. 
Consolation, for unsuccessful authors — “Many works,” 
says Chamfort, “succeed, because the mediocrity of the 
author’s ideas exactly corresponds with the mediocrity of 
ideas on the part of the public.” 
Custom — A reason for irrational things, and an excuse 
for inexcusable ones. 
^p^“Kin you tell me, Sambo, de key to de prosperity 
of de Souf I” 
•‘Key to prosperity of do Soufl Big words, Juno; 
guess you must hab been eating massa’s dicksrunary. 
Golly, I ai’nt learned nuff to answer dat. 
“Well, chili, ’lis de dar-key,” 
• ♦ • 
13^ A head properly constituted can accommodate it- 
self to whatever pillows the vicissitudes of fortune may 
place under it. 
