ever likely to overcome the difficulties of rough surfaces where so much of the power is expended in carrying the engine itself forward over steep and unequal ground."

To overcome these difficulties, I apprehend we must make the engine with a succession of fixtures along the headlands, and have recourse to a windlass, or movable pulley and rope, in order to compass the tillage of hilly or unequal surfaces. This, I am persuaded, may be done with economy and effect by the introduction of a suitable engine and guide-pulleys made movable along the headlands. By this arrangement the whole power of the engine would be applied to the ploughs, and the friction consequent upon the drag of a considerable length of

rope.

Mr. Fowler has adopted this system, and, according to returns received, it is stated that "the working cost of deeply breaking up the soil at five acres per diem, including the shifting of the tackle, is 5s. 2d. ; and of trenching and subsoiling, three acres per diem, 8s. 8d. per acre; the wear and tear being taken at 1s. 6d. per acre more. The price of the tackle and implements adapted to a common portable 7-horse engine is 2207., and the experience of several farmers appears to show that it is worth while to lay out this sum in order to derive full benefit from the process." Mr. Smith of Deanston's method of turning the instrument at the end of its course is by simply having it yoked to the ropes by a turn bow or hook in front, an exceedingly simple and ready arrangement.

Mr. Clarke, in his paper, states rightly that the best and indeed the first plan ever brought into actual operation is that of the engine and head gear on one headland, and an anchorage and pulley on the other, both being shifted along as the work proceeds. This is Mr. Fowler's plan, and is that which was exhibited at Stirling, where six and three-quarter acres were ploughed to a depth of

five and a half inches at an estimated cost of 8s. per acre, which by horse labour would have cost 15s. per acre. On milder soils seven inches deep at the rate of nine and a half acres a day cost 6s. an acre, which by horse labour would have cost 8s. per acre. The trenching implement going twelve inches deep, ploughed at the rate of five acres per day at a cost of 11s. per acre, which would require six horses in order to accomplish one acre per day.

The saving may therefore be reckoned to be 35 per cent. upon loamy land; 40 per cent. upon heavy land, and 60 per cent. in the trenching process.

Such are the statements Mr. Clarke has given in his paper, and assuming these returns to be correct we may safely look forward to increased improvement and great diminution of cost in the process of steam ploughing.

Again, referring to the experimental trials at Stirling, I must not forget to notice the superior quality of the work done, and the great advantage derived from turning over the furrows at a rapid motion, thus dispensing with the consolidating effects produced by the horses and other damaging agencies affecting the soil as it leaves the mould board of the plough. On this principle it will be observed that only 800 yards of wire rope are required for ploughing 400 yards of furrow, and the price of the entire apparatus for a 7-horse engine does not exceed 2807. The hands required are only two men and three boys, exclusive of water carriers.

Numerous suggestions have been made in regard to the above process, and I may be allowed to observe that what is wanted is no several ploughs attached to the drag rope and guided by hand, but a series of ploughs fixed in a frame or carriage with wheels, susceptible of being guided in a straight line at a uniform depth from the surface over which it is moved. A machine of this sort with the

ploughs tilting upon a centre and ploughing both ways is adopted by Mr. Fowler.

On this subject, Mr. Clarke observes, that we can imagine no better plan than that of balancing two sets of fixed ploughs upon a single pair of wheels. The frame being hung midway upon the axles with a set of ploughs at each end, is tilted so as to bring the hindmost set into work, and when arrived at the headland the attendant has simply to pull down the other end and start the implement in its next course, and so on alternately moving the engine and return pulley at the headlands until the work is finished. A machine of this sort, attached to a portable locomotive engine, such as is used for threshing, will, in my opinion, meet all the requirements of steam tillage, taking into account future improvements which are sure to follow; and, I believe, it would prove a much more economical process for the cultivation of the soil than the system at present in use.

Some three or four years ago I was in communication with Mr. Hoskyns on the subject of steam tillage, and in order to carry out that gentleman's views I sent him a rough sketch of a machine on the principle of rotation, with cutters fixed on a revolving axis, placed behind the carriage of an engine, and of such a form as would enable them to slice the soil, and by a spiral blade lay it in sections prepared for the harrows, or any other process of pulverisation. Not having heard from Mr. Hoskyns, I am not aware of what has been done in this direction, but I am of opinion that an effective machine of this kind might be applied with success on lands which are level, or where the gradients are not steep. The difficulties although not insurmountable are considerable, as the weight of the engine and cutting apparatus is a great drawback to this description of machine.

In the present state of our knowledge it is probably difficult to determine the best principle on which steam

cultivation should be carried out. I am, however, decidedly of opinion that a sum not exceeding 10,000l. would be well spent by a commission of two or three gentlemen of undoubted ability who would undertake the duty of investigating the subject, and instituting a series of experiments calculated to ensure unmistakable results as to the best means of overcoming the difficulties, and of establishing a system of operations calculated to meet all the requirements of a new, more perfect, and more economical system of tillage.

Ten thousand pounds is a large sum to be expended for such a purpose, but the agriculturists could not possibly make a better investment; and if this sum were raised by subscription, with a small grant from the Government, the Royal Agricultural and the Highland Societies, I am satisfied the time would not be far distant when the returns would be upwards of 30 to 50 per cent. I would myself, with one or two others, gladly take charge of the inquiry, and by careful experiment and research endeavour to lay a basis for effecting the operations of the farm by steam power at a rate of only one-third the present cost.

REAPING MACHINES.

Machines of this kind are of great antiquity; they were known to the Romans, and a graphic description is given of them and their uses by Pliny. Those of modern date have many properties which bear more or less directly upon those of antiquity, but we hear nothing of them during the dark or middle ages, and from these remote times up

*The subject of reaping machines was carefully investigated in my report addressed to Lord Stanley of Alderley, President of the Board of Trade, and as that report contains the results of a series of experiments made upon different machines at the Paris Exhibition, I have concluded that I could not do better than submit it for your consideration.

to the present we have few traces of improvement, or successful attempts to substitute machine reaping for the sickle. Various machines were invented in the early part of the present century, though probably the first successful attempt was made by Mr. Smith, of Deanston, in 1812. This machine was followed by those of Ogle in 1822, Mann in 1832, and Bell, of Carmyllie, Forfar, in 1826. Mr. Bell has used his machine and gathered in his harvests by it for the last thirty years, and it is not too much to say that most of those now in use, both in this country and in America, are based upon the principle which he introduced. There is a great similarity in all these machines, and those shown at the Universal Exhibition of Paris exhibited nearly the same characteristics in principle and construction as those at the Exhibition of 1851.

M'Cormick, Croskill, and others, introduced some slight improvements, but the principle of the machine remains unaltered, excepting the receiving boards, which in those brought forward for competition at the Paris Exhibition are exceedingly variable in form and construction, and some of them very ingenious. The period of the Universal Exhibition was most favourable for giving a fair trial to machines of this description, and the month of August afforded an excellent opportunity for testing their merits by direct experiment. Through the liberality of M. Dailly, a distinguished agriculturist and member of the jury, a field of oats on his farm at La Trappe was set apart for the exclusive purpose of ascertaining the properties and proving the value of these machines. On the 2nd of August, 1855, at 11 o'clock, the machines were divided into three groups, and the contest for superiority commenced as follows:

N