139 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. the means of theoretical instruction are very complete. Lectures are delivered by twelve professors on the following subjects:-Mathematics and physics, chemistry and botany, technology, tillage and other departments of rural economy, forestry, and the veterinary art. The lectures are so arranged that they can be either attended in two halfyears or three or four. In the former case much preliminary information must have been acquired. There is attached to the institution a small botanical garden; a museum of zoological, botanical, and mineralogical objects; skeletons of domestic animals; collections of seeds and woods; and a library of works on rural economy. The establishment also comprises a manufactory of beet-root sugar, a brewery, a distillery of potato-spirit, and there is an apartment devoted to the rearing of silkworms. A part of the farm is reserved for experiments. The second class of students do the manual labour, but they are nearly maintained at the expense of the institution, and, when they can be spared from field-labour, they have the opportunity of attending the lectures at the college. In Bavaria the king has given up the domain attached to the royal palace of Schleissheim for the purposes of a model farm; but a great mistake has been made in selecting land much below the average standard of fertility, which, as well as land of extraordinary productiveIt is on a much inferior scale to the ness, should be avoided. establishment at Hohenheim. There are agricultural institutions supported by the state at Vienna, Prague, Pesth, and various other places in the south-east of Europe. We add to these remarks the following enumeration of European Agricultural Educational Institutions, extracted from a report by Dr. Hitchcock to the legislature of Massachusetts :- Total Parts of Total. 1 25 34 70 2 1 2 1 3 9 12 13 32 3 25 33 1 3 35 5 Although the column containing a reference to such agricultural institutions as form parts of colleges is blank opposite England, it should be mentioned that since the date of Dr. Hitchcock's report, the Trustees of the Queen's College at Birmingham have established an agricultural lectureship, and appointed Mr. Henry J. Tanner, of the Cirencester Agricultural College, their first Professor of Agriculture. (On public Institutions for the Advancement of Agricultural Science, by Dr. Daubeny; Journals of Royal Agric. Soc. of England; Dr. Lindley's Gardener's Chron. and Agric. Gazette, &c. &c.; Thom's Almanac and Official Directory for Ireland). AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. Few of the productive arts have made more signal progress within the last few years than those which relate to the cultivation of the soil. This progress is mainly due to four causes. First, the Repeal of the Corn Laws. The abandonment of protective duties on home produce has compelled the He is now placed in a position farmer to depend on his own resources. to feel the effects of any superiority or advantages possessed by foreign farmers; and he is urged by every motive of self-interest to maintain his ground. Those circumstances which depend upon political or fiscal regulations, and those which are due to climate or natural causes, he must bend to, if he cannot make them bend to him; but, in all the practical details of his art, he is more alive to what is going on around him than at any former period in the history of British farming. The chemical Second, the progress of agricultural chemistry. researches of Liebig and others have led to marked improvements, especially in the implements for distributing and otherwise treating manures. Third, the Royal Agricultural Society. The exertions of this admirable society-in conducting experimental researches, offering prizes for useful novelties, holding annual shows or exhibitions, drawing up reports on the agriculture of particular places at particular times, the popularisation of the results obtained by scientific men, and the publication of papers relating to all branches of agri cultural art-have had a great effect in leading to improvements in INSTRUMENTS OF TILLAGE. Ploughs. The better the soil, the less cultivation it requires to produce tolerable crops; hence, where the land is very rich, we find in general a slovenly culture; where the ground is less productive, more labour and skill are applied to compensate for the want of natural fertility. The simplest cultivation is that of the spade, the hoe, and the rake, and on a small scale it is the best; but spade husbandry cannot be carried to a great extent without employing more hands than can be spared from other occupations. The plough, drawn by oxen or horses, is the chief instrument of tillage, and has been so in all ages A plough [PLOUGH] and nations of which we have any records. should as much as possible imitate the work done with a spade. It should cut a slice from the land by its coulter vertically, and by the share horizontally lift it up, and turn it quite over by means of the mould-board; the art of the ploughman consists in doing this perfectly, and with such a depth and width as suit the soil and the intended purpose. In rich mellow soils a ploughed field should differ little from a garden dug with the spade. In tenacious soils, the slice will be continued without breaking, especially if bound by the fibres and roots of plants; the whole surface will be turned over, and the roots exposed to the air: it is of great consequence that all the slices be of the same width and thickness, and the sides perfectly straight and parallel. The plane of the coulter must be perfectly vertical, and that of the share horizontal, in order that the bottom of the furrow may be level, without hollows or baulks, which are irregularities produced by the rising or sinking of the plough, or inclining it to either side. The ancients were very particular in this respect, and recommended sounding the earth with a sharp stake, to ascertain whether the ploughman had done his duty. There are various modes of ploughing land, either quite flat, or in lands or stitches, as they are called in England, and, in Scotland, riggs, that is, in portions of greater or less width, with a double furrow between them-somewhat like beds in a garden. Sometimes two ridges are set up against each other, which is called ridging or bouting; the land then is entirely laid in high ridges and deep furrows, by which it is more exposed to the influence of the atmosphere and kept drier; this is generally done before winter, especially in stiff wet soils. Sometimes two or more ridges are made on each side, forming narrow stitches. When the ground is to be ploughed without being laid in lands or stitches, and all the ridges inclined one way, the mouldboard of the plough is shifted at each turn from one side to the other. The plough which admits of this is called a turn wrest plough, and is in general use in Kent, and in many parts of the continent, where the subsoil is dry and the land not too moist. In most other situations the ground is laid in lands, and the mould-board of the plough is fixed on the right side. When grass land or stubble is ploughed, care must be taken to bury the grass and weeds completely, and the slice cut off by the plough must be turned over entirely, which is best done by making the width of the furrow greater than the depth. When the grass and weeds are rotten, and the ground is ploughed to pulverise it, a narrow deep furrow is best; the earth ploughed up laid against the side of the preceding ridge, which forms a small furrow between the tops of the ridges, well adapted for the seed to lodge in and to be readily covered with the harrows. is Nothing has more divided agriculturists than the question, whether the land should be ploughed deep or shallow; but a slight attention to the purposes for which land is ploughed, and to the nature of the soil, will readily reconcile these apparently contradictory opinions. A deep, rich, and stiff soil can never be moved too much nor too deep deep ploughing brings up rich earth, admits the air and water readily, and gives room for the roots to shoot; while the rich compact soil affords moisture and nourishment. Wherever trees are to be planted, the ground should be stirred as deep as possible, even in a poor soil; for grass and corn, this is not, however, in ordinary practice found prudent; though their roots descend below the cultivated staple,' yet these crops are found in general to succeed best when the subsoil is left unloosened. The great object in ploughing land is to divide it, expose every part of it to the influence of the elements, and destroy every plant or weed but those which are sown in it. To do this perfectly requires several ploughings, with certain intervals, and during that time no crop can be upon the land. This is the real use of fallows, and not, as was once supposed, to allow the land to rest; on the contrary, it ought then to have the least repose. Harrows. Referring to the article PLOUGH for an account of the recent improvements in that important implement, we proceed to notice the other implements in connection with the processes of arable culture. After the harvest, the plough is set to work, and the stubble ploughed in. The winter's frost and snow mellow it, while the stubble and weeds rot below. In spring, as soon as the weather permits, it is ploughed again, to complete the decomposition of the roots and weeds. The harrow is then, in most cases, employed, to stir the ground and tear up the remaining roots. The bush-harrow consists of a row of twigs or branches, fixed to a frame, and drawn over the surface of the ground. But this is intended rather for covering the seed with a light layer of earth, than to prepare the ground for sowing. The ordinary harrows have several rows of iron teeth or tines, which dig into the ground, and assist in comminuting the clods of earth. Until recently, the harrow was made with bars set square, and with teeth one behind another on each bar; to prevent the teeth, therefore, from dragging after each other in the channels, it was necessary to draw the harrow in an awkward way from the corner. In Williams's patent harrow the bars are set diagonally, at such an angle that every tooth, when the harrow is drawn square, may mark out a furrow for itself. In Howard's harrow, the diagonal arrangement is combined with a zig-zag framing, having a somewhat similar object in view. In Coleman's expanding harrow, the bars at every point of crossing are united by a loose pin instead of a screw; the effect of this is, that the width of the harrow can be increased or diminished, and the teeth can be brought nearer or farther apart, so as to suit the state of the land. This harrow has also very small wheels, which can be let down while it has to be conveyed from one field to another. Scarifiers; Grubbers; Cultivators.-Various instruments have been invented to stir and mix the earth, without so often using the plough as was necessary in the old mode of farming, and also to loosen and separate roots and weeds. The scarifiers, grubbers, and cultivators now in use are all examples of this kind of implement. One of the earliest was Plenty's scarifier, which acted as if a large number of very small ploughs were working at once in one frame, each digging only to a small depth into the ground. The teeth, shares, or tines, were easily removable, so as to be replaced by others of different size or shape, according to the state of the soil; and when inserted they could be raised or lowered at pleasure, as a means of making a shallow or a deep incision. This implement divided the soil, but did not turn it over; it was well calculated to destroy roots and weeds, and to let in the air, but it was only adapted to tolerably loose and mellow soils, free from large stones. Finlayson's harrow or cultivator rakes the weeds out of the ground, and throws them on the surface without clogging the instrument. Farmers value the various kinds of cultivators and scarifiers chiefly on the following ground;-in a four-course system of husbandry, there are frequently seven ploughings in the four years; but by the use of these implements at certain seasons, working many tines or shares at once, but going only to a small depth, the regular ploughings may be reduced in number, and the total result produced by one-half the ordinary labour of man and horse. The implement-makers have vied with each other in ingenious modes of insuring these results. Coleman's scarifier, with six horses, is adapted for very hard ground. Biddel's, made by Messrs. Ransome, is suitable for deeper incisions into looser ground. Kilby and Bentall's paring-ploughs are midway in character between ordinary ploughs and scarifiers, and are useful for a very close surface of land. Cotgreave's plough is a cultivator, in which three processes are combined in rather a curious way; it first ploughs and turns a furrow five inches in depth; then it digs another five-inch furrow, inverts the soil, and deposits it on the top of the first; and lastly, a sub-pulveriser loosens the soil to a further depth of three or four inches. Beauclerk's patent plough and subsoiler may be likened to a common plough with an Archimedian screw attached, which revolves in the bottom of the furrow, thus ploughing and subsoiling at the same time. At the Smithfield Cattle Show in 1858, one of the implements exhibited was Romaine's cultivator or digger, which takes up and turns over larger masses of earth than is customary with other implements of the kind. A digging action is effected by Owen's potatodigging plough, exhibited on the same occasion; with this machine, two horses and one man can dig potatoes as rapidly as twenty persons can pick them up. Rollers; Clod-crushers.-When the soil turned up by the plough is in large hard lumps, a roller, sometimes with spikes on its surface, is drawn over the land to break the clods, or mallets are used to break them by hand; but this is seldom necessary, except where very stiff soils have been ploughed when too wet, and the ridges have dried, and been ploughed again in dry weather. Deep wet clay soils require watching, to determine the proper time for ploughing; frost is the best pulveriser; and if they be kept from wet by careful draining in autumn, they will be loose and friable in spring. On light soils the plain roller is used with advantage to produce firmness, and to hinder a too rapid evaporation of moisture. Farm-rollers, like other agricultural implements, have undergone many improvements. "Not many years ago," said Mr. Philip Pusey, one of the most enlightened encouragers of scientific agriculture, "the landlord was often asked by his tenant for some old tree to convert into a roller; the tree-roller, when manufactured, had its framework loaded with rough materials to give it weight; but it soon wore and cracked, so as to become in a year a most ungainly implement." Iron rollers of excellent construction have since been introduced. For rendering the soil fine, however, the regular cylindrical form has one disadvantage, seeing that it passes so easily over small clods as to press without crushing them. Hence the invention of various kinds of Clod-crushers. M. Claes, of Belgium, has invented a roller intended for narrow round ridges, but also fitted to produce the crushing instead of the pressing action. It consists of four rings or partial rollers, so adjusted on one axis as to have independent and irregular movements. The best machine now in use in England for this purpose is Crosskill's clod-crusher. It is a roller of which the surface is jagged by iron teeth. Its principal use is in breaking down turnip land which has been fed off by sheep in wet weather, and afterwards baked by the heat of the sun; but it is also usefully employed as a presser for young wheat in March, when the soil has been swollen and the roots thrown out by alternating frosts and thaws. According to the competent testimony of Mr. Pusey, by using this implement on barley-land at the proper time, the necessity is avoided of sowing on cloddy ground, or of delaying the sowing for three weeks-in either case ensuring an additional quarter of barley per acre, and thus paying for the implement in the very first season. Another kind of clod-crusher, Gibson's, is adapted for a moist state of the soil; it is formed of two rows of very narrow wheels, alternating one with another. Patterson's self-cleaning clod-crusher contains a series of eccentrics upon an axle, which, in revolving, rub and clean each other. Crosskill's Norwegian harrow differs from his clod-crusher in having very long and fine teeth; it does not clog between the teeth, nor does it knead the soil. It is evident that each kind of clod-crusher is suitable for a particular state of the ground. Many of the implements employed in the preparation of the ground for culture are now tested by dynamometers, or power-measurers, which show in what ratio the power employed is made to render useful service. At the Newton Abbot meeting of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, in 1857, several such instruments were submitted to trial. One showed the draught of ploughs and cultivators, from one to six-horse power; another ascertained the power consumed by horse-gear, independently of the machines to which it may be attached; while another tested the power of threshing and other rotary machines. IMPLEMENTS OF CULTIVATION. Sowing; the Dibble.-When the soil has been prepared by means of the implements above described, the processes of cultivation follow, including the sowing of the seed and the treatment of the growing crops. In arable land, the most common method is to sow the seed after the last ploughing, and draw the harrow over to cover it; the seed, if the land has been well ploughed, will mostly fall into the small furrows made by two adjoining ridges, and rise in regular rows. A more careful method, however, is that of dibbling, adopted in some of the eastern counties. The dibble is a rod about 30 inches long, having an oval ring for a handle at one end, and at the other a cone-shaped projection. With two of these dibbles, one in each hand, the sower makes small holes 4 or 5 inches apart, in rows 9 to 12 inches asunder; he pushes and turns the dibbles, to make clear holes, walking backwards along the furrows. Two or more children follow, and drop three or more grains in each hole; a bush-harrow is drawn over the ground, and fills the holes with loose earth. Great improvements have been made in the construction of hand dibbles, by which several holes are made and seed deposited in them by one operation. A dibble manufactured by Mr. Powell is one of the best of this class. Drills. -Broad-cast and dibble sowing have, however, been almost abandoned in modern English farming. One half of the horse power formerly expended in harrowing is saved by the adoption of some of the modern drills or seed-sowing machines; a saving of seed is also effected; and there is also an avoidance of the necessity for that previous harrowing into ridges at a particular angle, which was formerly deemed necessary as a preliminary to hand-sowing. The drill is, in fact, the key to a whole system of husbandry; for, in addition to the advantages just enumerated, this machine is applicable to the use of many artificial manures, distributing them beneath the ground by means of special coulters, and covering them with earth, that their excessive strength may not injure the seed, which is deposited last of all. The use of the horse-hoe is almost wholly dependent on the previous use of the drill; indeed, the two bear to each other much the same relation as the hand-hoe and the dibble. For the construction and action of seed-drilling machines, see DRILL. Top-dressers; Manure-distributors.-Wheat crops are usually provided with their requisite manure by farm-yard refuse or by sheep-folding. It usually, however, requires a top-dressing of manure during its growth. It was customary, a few years ago, to apply this by hand; but machines are now usually employed. These will distribute three or four bushels per acre of guano, rape-cake, superphosphate, nitrate of soda, or other fertilising agent. Holmes's top-dresser is a favourable example of this kind of implement. A more complicated machine is that by which manure is deposited either with the seed, or at least with an equal degree of regularity. Some among the many forms of drill are applicable to this purpose; and our implement makers now bestow great attention upon this department of their art. Thus, Reeves and Beaton's liquid-manure distributor consists of a series of buckets or troughs, attached to a metal chain or band; the chain works round two rollers as the vehicle progresses, the wheel giving the motive power to the rollers. Chandler's water-drill is an ingenious contrivance for depositing water as well as pulverised manure, at certain dry seasons. Some of Hornsby's drop-drills not only limit the seed and manure to particular lines, but to particular points in these lines, thereby increasing still more the economical action of drills. At the Salisbury meeting in 1857, Reeves's manure-distributor received much commendation: it comprises a box in which revolve a row of archimedean screws; these turn the dry powdered manure out at holes in the bottom of the box,—| a slide, by diminishing or increasing the openings, regulating the quantity to be deposited. Hoe; Horse-hoe.-Among the necessary implements for treating the young plants during their development is the hoe-worked by hand in the old-fashioned method, and by horse-power in the improved modern farming. [HOE; HORSE-HOEING.] HARVESTING IMPLEMENTS. adjusted as to bear more or less on the horse, according to the steepness of the road. The Scotch cart is made to carry hay and straw by means of a light frame, which is laid on it and projects over the body and wheels in every direction. To ease the weight resting on the back of the horse, carts have been invented with three wheels, the small additional wheel being made to turn in front; but they have disadvantages which counterbalance their advantages. "It is The Agricultural Jury Report on the Great Exhibition of 1851, announced a very marked improvement in recent years in the construction of agricultural carts and waggons, especially in the use of single-horse carts instead of pair-horse or three-horse waggons. proved beyond question, that the Scotch and Northumbrian farmers, by using one-horse carts, save one-half of the horses which southcountry farmers still string on to their three-horse waggons and dungcarts. The said three-horse waggons and dung-carts would also cost nearly three times as much original outlay." The implement-makers have shown that single-horse carts can be made suitable for any farming purpose. Mr. Busby's cart is one which has come largely into use. So much attention has recently been paid to this subject that, in a competitive trial at Grantham, five horses with five new carts were tried against ten horses with five old waggons, and clearly beat them in the amount of work performed. Some makers now attend most to the form of the harvest-cart, that the corn may be carried more steadily; some endeavour to make the cart low, for ease of loading and of draught; some try to give horizontality to the shafts; some make their wheels by machinery; while others strive for excellence in a 'cartof-all-work,' which shall be adapted to as many kinds of farm-service as possible. At the Great Exhibitions in London and Paris (1851 and 1855), foreigners were much struck with the superior neatness and compactness of English farm-carts, over those made and used on the Continent. At the Salisbury meeting in 1857, a prize was offered for "the best one-horse cart, constructed with a view to lightness of draught and the ready loading and unloading of farm produce,qualities which may be best attained by the judicious use of long shafts, high wheels, and cranked axles." This prize led to the production of a number of excellent carts for agricultural purposes. Threshing Machines.-The important process of separating the corn Reaping Machines.-The operation of cutting the corn when it is from the husk used, in former days, to be effected by means of a flail ripe, is one of so important a character, that inventors have made many beating against a threshing-floor; but farmers are now becoming more attempts, during the last century, to produce machines that shall effect and more accustomed to employ the improved implement called the this by horse-power instead of by the sickle or reaping-hook. The threshing-machine. For the simpler process, see BARN; and for the ingenious labours of M'Cormick, Hussey, Bell, Crosskill, and other more complicated but more efficient, THRESHING; THRESHING MACHINE. machinists, in this department of their art, will be best noticed in Winnowing and Dressing Machines.-These are so intimately allied connection with the process of reaping generally, under REAPING; with the machines last mentioned, in their purpose and action, that REAPING MACHINES. they may usefully be noticed together, under THRESHING; THRESHING MACHINES. IMPLEMENTS FOR STOCK-FEEDING. Horse-rakes.-Even the rakes which collect the scattered corn in a field are now to be numbered among horse-worked implements. The modern horse-rake used in many of our counties, is an implement about 8 feet wide, running on low wheels, and having about 30 prongs or Turnip-Cutters.-The preparation of fodder for animals has become a teeth; it is drawn by one horse rapidly between the rows of cocked department of farming in which many useful and ingenious implements barley, &c., and is tipped up from time to time by a man who follows. are employed. It has been found that the labour of the jaws in mastiOne of these machines will do the work of about twelve women. At cating uncut food, tends to waste the muscle of the farm animals and the Newton Abbot meeting in 1857, three or four "self-acting" horse- retard their growth; it is therefore now a custom to cut or bruise rakes were tried; but the automatic action was not in general satisfactory. most of the kinds of fodder for such animals. The turnip-cutter is one At the Salisbury meeting the specimens were much more numerous, of the implements employed for this purpose. There is no doubt conexhibiting many ingenious modes of overcoming difficulties. siderable advantage in the use of a turnip-cutter to the animals individually so fed, but the principal economy of the process arises from its saving much of the roots as food which is otherwise trodden down in the sheep-pen. Lambs fed with the aid of a turnip-cutter would be worth more at the end of a winter by 88. a head than lambs fed on whole turnips, thus effecting a saving of about 70s. per acre on turnip crop. The turnip-cutters vary greatly in action, some cutting by a vertical, and others by a rotatory movement. Hay-making Machines.-The simple use of the fork to turn and toss the hay in the field, is now to some extent superseded by hay-making machines. Those which were first introduced, flung up the hay high in the air; but they are now so constructed as gently to stir it, without raising it to any great height. The hay-making machine is something like a paddle-wheel, with teeth or spikes in all the paddle-boards or floats. It is set in rotation by the wheels of the carriage to which it is attached. Its labour-saving effect is analogous to that of the horse-rake. Rowsell's hay-collector is a favourable example of this kind of implement. At the Salisbury meeting, the hay-making machines sent by Nicholson, Barrett and Exall, Smith and Ashby, Thompson, Nicholson, and other makers, worked so excellently as to show that this kind of process has been fairly brought within the range of machinery. Several instruments of minor character might be comprised under this particular section of our article: such as Allen's grass-mower, exhibited at the Smithfield Show in 1858; it will cut grass better and lower than the scythe, and at the rate of an acre per hour. Kinnaird's, Mazier's, Clayton's, and Catchome's, are all useful instruments for cutting clover or grass, each being suited for a particular kind of work. PREPARATIONS FOR MARKET. Carts and Waggons.-The conveyance of agricultural produce from the field to the barn, and from the barn to market, has not failed to enlist the attention of implement-makers. Many improvements in these vehicles have been recently introduced. The old-fashioned capacious tumbril for carting earth and dung, with broad wheels to prevent them sinking in soft ground, is too well known to need description. The best-constructed carts have iron axles, with the ends or arms turned smooth, and slightly conical. The light Scotch cart, drawn by one horse, is justly regarded as a useful vehicle for transporting earth or manure, especially in hilly countries. It is low and short, so that the horse draws very near the centre of gravity; and the load may be so Chaff Cutters.-Another implement of this class is the chaff-cutter. There not being enough natural chaff for the use of farm animals, artificial chaff is made by cutting straw into very small pieces. At first the straw was cut by a chopper, but cutting-machines were afterwards introduced; they usually consist either of a blade working vertically, or of one or more cutters ranged on a wheel; but in some large farms the cutters are worked by means of a strap connected with a fixed or moveable steam-engine. The process now costs only onesixth or one-eighth of the charge formerly incurred. There was a trial of chaff-cutters during the Agricultural Meeting at Carlisle in 1855, in which one apparatus, made by Cornes, cut 1485 lbs. of chaff per hour by steam-power; those that worked by the muscular power of one man each cut quantities varying from 90 to 210 lbs. per hour. In Brown and May's screw-cam chaff-cutter, exhibited at the Smithfield Show in 1858, there are feed-rollers, which hold the hay or straw firmly while the knife is passing through, and these rollers move round to bring it forward in the space between the knives, ready for the next cut. Crushers, Grinders, and Bruisers.-These machines, mostly of modern introduction, act by the crushing movement of rollers rather than the grinding movement of mills, and are intended to facilitate the comminution of substances for cattle-food. One is a linseed-crusher; another a corn-crusher; a third, an oil-cake bruiser; a fourth, a finemeal mill; a fifth, a gorse-bruiser. It is evident, from a mere inspection of this list, that there is much scope for ingenuity in the arrangement of working parts for such machines. Some of the fine-meal mills, made principally to crush barley, beans, and oats, admit of adjustment that will enable them to grind anything from linseed up to flint stones." Messrs. Hornsby, Garrett, Crosskill, and other manufacturers, now make steam-worked oil-cake breakers that will break 3000 lbs. of cake per hour for sheep, or 4000 lbs. for cattle. Pulping Machines.-Farmers are not agreed concerning the amount of advantage derivable from the reduction of root-food to a softened state. In reference to potatoes, it has been found worth while to steam them for pig food; and even diseased potatoes, if not very far decayed, by being thus treated, may be rendered good victuals to be stored up for months. The pulping of turnips enables the root to be incorporated with other nutritious articles of food. Pulping and Steaming machines now occupy a place in all the exhibitions of Agricultural Implements. LAND DRAINING. Drain-tile Machines.-In strictness, the preparation of ground for farming purposes ought to receive priority of notice, before the processes of agriculture. But in truth the two subjects are widely distinct. Draining is a part of the civil engineer's labours, requiring the application of numerous principles having little direct relation to vegetable culture. It is an answer to the problem-how to remove from land a too great abundance of moisture; in the same way that irrigation is the process of imparting to land an additional quantity of moisture. Draining-ploughs.-Somewhat more closely connected with the farmer's operations, but nevertheless, requiring the aid of other persons, is the use of the very singular draining-plough; by which one machine not only digs a drain, but also places a layer of drainingpipes in it. It will be convenient, therefore, to refer to DRAIN-PIPES AND TILES, for an account of the ingenious machines by which clay is so fashioned as to be available for these purposes; to DRAINING, for a description of the modes of applying these pipes; and to IRRIGATION, for a notice of the modes of supplying water to the soil for the purposes of agriculture. APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER, One of the most important questions now pressing on the attention of agriculturists is to what extent may steam-power profitably supersede horse-power and manual labour? Steam-engines may be applied to work the machines of the barn and threshing-floor, such as threshing machines, winnowing and dressing machines, and the like; or they may be applied to the operations of the land, such as ploughing, harrowing, &c. All agree that these things can be done; but the problem waiting for solution is, whether they can be done profitably. Under the headings DRILL, PLOUGH, &c., will be found details relating to this matter; but it seems desirable to make a few general observations on the subject in this place. All agricultural steam-engines must ultimately resolve themselves into one or other of five kinds-fixed engines, to work machines contiguous to them; locomotive engines, to work a fixed machine; fixed engines, working locomotive machines by means of a travelling strap or rope; locomotive engines, carrying their own railway with them over the surface of a field; and locomotive engines, travelling on lines of rail regularly laid down on the field. With regard to the first of these kinds; it is evident that any mechanism which is made to rotate may have its rotation given by a steam-engine as well as by a horse moving in a circle, or by a man turning a handle or wielding a flail. We may, therefore, at once refer to the special articles for instances: simply stating, that steam power is becoming more and more largely employed every year in performing the operations of the barn and the mill. Fixed steam-engines have been in use many years in Northumberland and East Lothian for threshing and other barn operations. The Royal Agricultural Society has been honourably distinguished by the zeal with which it has encouraged improvements in this direction. It propounded the question, whether moveable steam-engines would not be better than fixed engines for barn as well as field purposes. It assigned three reasons for answering this question in the affirmative. 1st. That if a farm be very large, it will be greater economy to wheel a locomotive steam-engine to different parts, than to employ horses and men in bringing all the corn in the straw to one point, and again carrying out the dung to a distance (perhaps) of two or three miles. 2nd. If a farm be of small or moderate size, it will not support the expense of a fixed steam-engine; whereas, a portable engine may be available for two or three farms, at a fair ratio of expense for each. 3rd. Although threshing can only be performed under cover in barns by fixed engines, it is perfectly feasible in the open air by a locomotive engine-a plan healthier and more expeditious for the labourers, and rendering practicable a diminution in the number of farm buildings requiring to be constructed by the landlord. The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought forward the skill of many makers, such as Hornsby, Tuxford, Clayton, Barrett, Hensman, Bullin, Roe, Ransome, and Garrett; but it also showed that the invention was still in its infancy, for the worst specimen consumed three times more coal than the best for the same amount of work. Of thirteen locomotive agricultural steam-engines put to trial, the nominal horse-power varied from 4 to 9; the time of getting up steam, 28 to 83 minutes; the coal used in getting up steam, 25 lbs. to 75 lbs. ; the coal burned per ARTS AND SCI. DIV. VOL. I. horse-power per hour, 679 lbs. to 25 80 lbs. Mr. Locke, the eminent engineer, in reporting on these trials, said :-" If I might be permitted to suggest a little advice to the makers of these engines, I would beg of them to attend more to the proportions of the various working parts, and less to external ornament. There is a want of good proportions in several of the engines; and this to a mechanic or an economical farmer is of more importance than a profusion of brass." Taking the experience of 1851 as a basis, the engine-makers have every year endeavoured to introduce improvements. At the Carlisle meeting of the Agricultural Society, in 1855, a marked advance was observable in the locomotives for farm purposes. The maximum consumption of coal per horse-power per hour was 10 lbs., while the minimum was as low as 37 lbs. It was found, however, that some of the engines had been built expressly to win the Society's prizes and commendations, and that more attention was needed to the rough and every-day qualities required for practical farming. By the year 1857 it had become a practice not at all unusual to make one steam-engine, under the charge of an intelligent farm labourer, perform all the operations of setting in motion threshing and winnowing machines, cutting chaff or roots, crushing oats, grinding corn, pulping mangold-wurzel, splitting beans, sawing wood, pumping water, and applying steam for steaming potatoes or roots. At the Salisbury meeting in that year, it was announced that Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth were making and selling agricultural steam-engines at the rate of five hundred per annum; and by the close of 1858 they had made several thousands, mostly for export to foreign countries, where English agricultural machines are now eagerly sought for. We have, lastly, to notice the most comprehensive system ever yet proposed, for applying steam-power to agriculture; a system only yet tried on a small scale, awaiting the time when it can be put to better tests. It is called the 'Guideway Steam Agriculture;' and it was fully described by its inventor, Mr. Halkett, at a meeting of the Society of Arts, on the 8th of December, 1858. The subject had been introduced to the society, and also to the Royal Agricultural Society, in 1857; but certain additions and improvements were made during 1858. The inventor regards his system as advantageous, not so much in the reduced cost of field operations, as in the increase of crops resulting therefrom. The principle consists in the laying down of permanent rails on the field, and the travelling of all the machines along those rails. The rails are laid in parallel lines on a very broad gauge. The ploughing, scarifying, sowing, hoeing, and reaping instruments are attached beneath a travelling carriage having locomotion given to it by steam power, The gauge has been tried at thirty feet; but the inventor sees no obstacle to the use of one as great as fifty feet. At right angles to the rails, along one side of the field, are other rails on a lower level, with very low carriages or trucks, the upper surface of which is on a level with the field rails; upon this truck the cultivating machinery moves, and is transferred sideways from one set of rails to another, or home to the steading. It is a sort of apparatus like that which is much in use on the Great Western Railway for transferring carriages from one pair of rails to another. This cross-railway Mr. Halkett calls the headland railway, on which the headland truck works. Three modes of laying down the rails are suggested. The first, for clay districts, consists in laying angularly-topped iron rails on a support of hardbaked bricks, which are themselves supported by a ballasting of burnt clay or concrete; this form requires that the tires of the wheels should have angular grooves to fit upon the rails. The second, for wood districts, is a cheap mode of laying down flat-surfaced creasoted wooden rails, on wood sleepers. The third, for market gardens and other high-rented land, consists in resting the rails on small posts or piles, in order to economise space. One reason for the great breadth of gauge is that as little land as possible may be occupied by the rails and their supports. As none of the machines could travel along the rails at a greater speed than two or three miles an hour, minute accuracy of gauge and of motion would not be so necessary as upon an ordinary railway. Such being, in few words, the arrangement of the rails and carriages, the steam culture is as follows:-The steam cultivator, a system of ploughs, is driven by two locomotive engines, placed at the extreme ends or sides, which are geared together by intermediate shafts. The cultivator has two sets of ploughs, working in opposite directions, and each in use during one particular direction of movement only; the other set being meanwhile raised by racks and pinions. The inventor states that 25 acres can thus be ploughed in a day of twelve hours. The land having been ploughed up, a comminutor' takes the place of the cultivator, being, like it, moved by locomotives; it is something like the Norwegian harrow, but revolves at a high velocity, and its tines or spikes break up the soil to a fine condition. The clod-crushing, the hoeing, the harrowing, the manure depositing, the water distributing, the reaping, and other field operations, are done by attaching the requisite machines or implements to the travelling carriage. The advantages to be expected by the adoption of this system are insisted on by Mr. Halkett in a variety of ways. The great advances which have been made by Fowler, Boydell, and other implementmakers, in ploughing and breaking up land by steam, have schooled the mind to the possibility of the same power being eligible for use in the field, and have prepared agriculturists to expect a system that shall perform more than one operation. The system is applicable both to L extensive holdings and to smaller farms, by modifying the amount of power to be applied. As to the space robbed from the field by the rails and ballasting, the inventor contends that, even if greater than it is, it would still be less than the open furrows between ridges; and also that no farm-roads would be wanted in the field, seeing that the guideway machines convey everything to and from the field. As the machines can be worked nearly as well in the dark as in the light, they might be made to do double duty in the twenty-four hours during seasons of exigency, by a relay of a few hands. When once the soil has been brought to a high condition, it may easily be kept so; for the whole weight of the machinery, engines, and implements rests upon the rails; nothing touches the soil except the implements in operation; no horses need stamp the ground with their iron-shod feet; and the footprints of the guide and the ploughman need never be seen pugging the clay, and treading into a solid clod that which has been reduced to the fineness of garden-mould. At present, the weeding, earthing-up, hoeing, and loosening of the earth among young crops are difficult to perform with the requisite care except by hand; but the guideway implements can be adjusted with great nicety, so as to travel at the requisite proximity to the rows at all times during the growth of the plant. Besides the machinery which carries the engines and implements, there are other guideway arrangements, equal in width from rail to rail, but smaller and lighter, for carrying water, manure, and the gathered crops; and the sprinkling of water and liquid manure can be effected nearly in the same way as by the waterdrill. When manual labour is required for the purpose of weeding, transplanting, or any other light work, the labourers are conveyed to the spot by means of the trucks, upon which they sit or stand while the work is being performed, or while the crop is being transferred from the ground to the truck. The trucks for this purpose might be drawn by horse-power or by manual labour, if preferred. Where the side of a field is crooked, the crooked part may easily be fenced off and used for ordinary cultivation. Where roads or lanes intervene between different fields, a level crossing on moveable rails would enable machinery to pass from field to field. If a farm abuts on a railway, it may be made to communicate with it; by this means the produce may be sent to populous towns without once leaving the rails; manure may be brought from the towns to the fields at a very small expense; and marl, clay, or sand, may be brought cheaply from distant places. The smaller system of cultivation, for the light operations of a farm, or for the total cultivation of a market-garden, might be worked by one small steam locomotive instead of two. Mr. Halkett has sketched the appearance of his apparatus when provided with all the implements for drilling corn, drilling seeds between the rows of plants, hoeing, rolling, surface watering, watering in rows, underground watering between rows, carrying crops, carrying water, weeding, transplanting, dibbling, and cross-hoeing, for the light operations of a farm, or for marketgardens, of course not all working at once, but showing the mode of arrangement for each. The inventor believes that the guideway system would be profitably employed in the West Indies, for ploughing, earthing the sugar crops, hoeing, carting the canes from the field, and other operations in which slave labour is now found to be really very costly. In a discussion which followed the reading of Mr. Halkett's paper at the Society of Arts, very conflicting opinions were expressed concerning the advantages of his new guideway system of steam culture. It was contended by some of the members, that the machines would cost more than was stated; that the system was not well adapted for other than very large farms, with large rectangular fields; that the system would not be workable except under a custom of long leases of farms, which would induce the farmers to invest the requisite capital; that the curves, and twists, and corners of a field would always be a source of perplexity to the farmers under this system; that the profits could not be so large as had been stated; that, even if large, there must first be a very heavy expenditure of capital, from which most farmers would shrink; that fields would require a good deal of levelling to bring out all the excellences of the system; and that the rails would spoil the fields for fox-hunting! On the other hand, it was contended that Mr. Halkett's system contained the germ of that which may greatly advance the science and art of agriculture in a future day. The commercial difficulty in reference to the heaviness of the first cost was generally regarded as being more serious than any mechanical difficulties, which it was believed might easily be overcome. A further notice of various methods adapted to cultivate the land by steam will be found in the article ARABLE LAND. definite amount of crop. It had been rendered further demonstrable that machinery had given comparative certainty to agriculture, by enabling many of the operations, in doubtful or unfavourable weather, to be done with quickness, which could hardly have been done at all by the hand method. Mr. Evelyn Denison (now, in 1859, Speaker of the House of Commons) prepared a Report on the Agricultural Imple ments displayed at the Paris Exposition de l'Industrie in 1855, in which he endeavoured to estimate the material saving accruing from the use of machinery in agriculture. Mr. Sidney, at the close of 1857, gave a few figures intended to bring down the estimate to that year. In this last-named estimate, it was supposed that within six years— that is, since Mr. Pusey prepared the Great Exhibition report the landowners of the United Kingdom had expended ten millions sterling in draining two million acres of land, on principles and with tools not known until 1845. Then, besides all the saving on the items already enumerated, there is that precious, though not easily-calculated advantage resulting from the economy of time, by employing machinery at full force during short intervals of fine weather. AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS can scarcely be said to exist as yet in England. Notwithstanding the acknowledged importance of exact information as to the amount of our agricultural production and consumption, especially to farmers, and the interest that is taken in the subject, as shown by the attention to the Mark Lane reports, which are little better than ingenious guesses, no steps have yet been taken to insure a correct estimate of the expected amount of the incoming crops, and the state of live stock. Such estimates as are made are derived from individual instances, than which nothing can be more fallacious. The great differences in cost, cultivation, and even of climate in England, make the application of the doctrine of averages almost more indispensable in agriculture than in any other trade. It is by the accumulation of individual parts that we arrive at something like a law. A law prevails in agriculture as in everything else, and the more any subject has the appearance of chance, the more necessary it is that the experiences should be registered, in order to arrive at the law expressed by an average. The inconvenience and loss occasioned by the absence of statistical returns has been often felt. After the harvest of 1846, the average price of corn for six weeks, from the middle of August to the end of September, was 48s. 2d., the lowest price being 458. 1d. In October, the price improved; but in November it again fell to 50s. But as soon as the new year had begun, symptoms of scarcity manifested themselves, and the wheat of that same harvest, notwithstanding the importation of four millions and a half of quarters, reached the price of 102s. 5d. per quarter. In this case, a knowledge of the produce of the harvest would have saved the farmer from the sacrifice of his property at the beginning; it would have saved the country from a great loss in the price of the foreign corn imported, occasioned by a sudden rush into the market for large supplies; it would have probably saved considerable waste of food during the period when it was improperly cheap; it would have saved inconvenience to the foreigners in whose markets our purchases inevitably increased the price of wheat; and the gains of the merely speculating corn-dealers would have been saved to the community. The desirableness of some knowledge on so important a subject has led many individuals to form, from the best available sources, general estimates, but the discrepancies show the unreliability of such estimates for any practical purpose. Some endeavoured to arrive at it by taking the acreage of the kingdom, the proportion supposed to be cultivated, and the probable amount of produce per acre. Gregory King, who wrote in 1685, was among the earliest. He estimated England and Wales to contain 39,000,000 acres, of which he supposed half to be uncultivated. Davenant, Grew, Templeman, Sir William Petty, Arthur Young, Dr. Beeke, Mr. M'Culloch, Mr. Porter, and others, formed estimates varying from 31,648,000 acres, to 46,916,000 acres, which was the estimate of Arthur Young, and was adopted by Mr. Pitt in his calculations for the probable amount of the Income Tax. In the census of 1851, the area is stated at 37,324,915 acres, which was very near the estimate of Dr. Beeke, who gave it as 38,498,572. Others, again, have endeavoured to ascertain the consumption by multiplying that of each individual by the number of the population, but here they differ materially, varying from 6 bushels to 8 bushels for each individual, an unsatisfactory difference of one third. We will now enumerate what measures have been taken in providing statistics by the government. What are called the corn averages, are entries or tables originally intended to regulate the duty on corn; but if modified and improved, they might be made an auxiliary to agricultural statistics. For a century previous to the year 1851, such returns were collected from the principal seaports of twelve maritime counties-entirely in relation to the imposition of duty on foreign corn; the collector of the returns was appointed by the magistrates of the town or borough in which the return was made, but his salary was paid by the government. In 1821 a change was made. The averages were ordered to be collected from 120 large market-towns in England and Wales. Every cornreturns to the inspector. The inspector provided a place for the reception of these returns; he posted up in some convenient locality the gross weekly returns, with the average price of each description of grain sold in the preceding seven days. These averages were then Whatever may be the relative merits of different modes of applying steam-power to agricultural purposes, it is evident that this modern invention is, in conjunction with other improvements, working a great revolution in farming operations. Mr. Pusey, in reporting on this subject, as Chairman of the Exhibition Jury, in 1851, made the following estimate:-That by using lighter ploughs, cultivators that lessen the necessity for ploughing, drills that economise both seed and moving-power, horse-hoes instead of hand-hoes, varied manures instead of manures of a few kinds, reaping-machines instead of sickles, well-merchant, miller, baker, and maltster, was ordered to make weekly constructed carts instead of clumsy wagons, fixed and portable steamengines, steam threshing and winnowing-machines, turnip- and chaffcutters, drain-tile machines, and draining-ploughs, there had been effected in twelve years a saving of one-half the former outlay in cultivating a |