370 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



successful. The existing general feeling of the 

 farmers of Surrey, with regard to the steam 

 plough, is much the same as those which have 

 been pretty well described by Mr. C. W. Hoskyns, 

 in his report upon the implements of the SaUsbury 

 Meeting, where he observes {.Tour. Roy. Ag. Soc, 

 vol. xviii., p. 424) : " It is remarkable, and may be 

 accounted for by those who can best explain the 

 alternations of public feeling and opinion, that at 

 Chelmsford, the year before, the one expression 

 heard on every side was, in various modes of ex- 

 clamation, to the effect that ' at last the problem of 

 steam-culture was solved !' while at Sahsbury, 

 where the preparations for this new class of trials 

 were on a scale far larger, and twice the number of 

 competitors were actually on the field (several more 

 having been entered), the general expression was 

 quite the other way. Not that the interest shown, 

 or the concourse of spectators, was less ; but a 

 feeling the opposite of anything- like sanguine ex- 

 pectation, or the prospect of realized results, 

 seemed to have gained ground during the lapse of 

 the twelvemonth. Whether it was that there had 

 been time to reflect that, after all, there was no- 

 thing really new in ploughing by steam, except 

 perhaps in the subordinate ingenuity of improved 

 details in connecting the implement with the engine, 

 or in turning at the headlands, or whether simply 

 because the novelty of the thing as matter of com- 

 petitive trial had lost its first freshness, the eager 

 expressions of expectation heard before had sub- 

 sided into a tone and attitude of mere criticizing 

 interest, somewhat difficult indeed either to accom- 

 modate, or, in the language of the police, to ' keep 

 back,' so that the ploughs, and workmen attending 

 the machinery, might have room to act, but far 

 from exhibiting the ready and impulsive conviction 

 of a thing accomplished, that had been noticed the 

 year before. 



" Of the actual trials themselves, at Salisbury, to 

 say much is impossible. Such a soil, on such a 

 situation, hardened to such a condition not only by 

 its own flinty nature, but by the long-continued 

 influence of one of the most extraordinary seasons 

 that has ever been known, were enough to render 

 any trial practically abortive. But no one who 

 saw the work performed, even under these adverse 

 circumstances, by Mr. Fowler's plough, could 

 doubt that, in his case at least (not to the least 

 disparagement of the other competitors), steara- 

 plowjh'mg, as such, had attained a degree of excel- 

 lence comparable in point of execution even with 

 the best horse-work. As to the relative economy, 

 there seems little reason to doubt that the calcula- 

 tions arrived at by Mr. Amos and others the year 

 before, at the adjourned trial at Boxted Lodge, 

 were sufficiently near the truth to leave a very in- 



considerable difference in favour of horse-work. 

 And if this be true as a comparison, merely taking 

 acre for acre, or hour for hour, every one who 

 knows the supreme value of time in the autumn 

 months on clay soils, and the difference, in capacity 

 of day-work, between a horse and a steam-engine, 

 must be aware that a new multiplier at least of 2, 

 if not more, may be placed to the credit of the 

 steam-engine, regarded as an available power or 

 auxiliary when work is pressing, and when, ac- 

 cording to a well-known poetical authority, the best, 

 or rather only method to lengthen the shortening 

 days, is to ' steal a few hours from night.' " 



On the right-hand side of the road leading 

 through Woodcote to Banstead, the traveller will 

 pass " The Oaks," once the beautiful hunting seat 

 of the Derby family, the early and powerful sup- 

 porters of the races at Epsom, whose former power- 

 ful influence there i§ still known throughout the 

 land in the " Derby" and the " Oaks." About 

 a quarter of a mile beyond this seat commences the 

 yet unenclosed portion of Banstead Downs, which 

 a few generations only since extended from Epsom 

 Downs to Croydon ; and to the pedestrian or the 

 equestrian traveller on his road to Epsom, I com- 

 mend the open down to the right of the road as one 

 of the most picturesque routes he can select. He 

 will see here the farming of the most thin-skinned 

 chalk soils, intermixed here and there with fields of 

 stiffer soil, and of the diluvian alluded to by Mr. 

 H. Evershed in his prize report on the Farming 

 of Surrey {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. xiv., p. 395) ; 

 and, during nearly the whole distance between 

 " The Oaks" and Epsom Downs, the explorer will 

 traverse an elevated ridge commanding the finest 

 views of the valleys of the Wandle and the Thames, 

 backed by the distant hills of Middlesex and Buck- 

 inghamshire. 



As is remarked by Mr. Evershed, in many in- 

 stances the natural herbage which clothes the sides 

 of the chalk ridge, producing alike an imposing 

 prospect and very useful sheep pasturage, has been 

 broken up and brought under tillage ; but the 

 change has seldom produced satisfactory results, 

 the unlevel position of the ground opposing a na- 

 tural barrier to its cultivation, while the scantiness 

 of the produce forms a very insufficient return for 

 the necessary outlay. Under these circumstances 

 the Downs of Surrey will probably long remain 

 one of the most prominent features of a very beau- 

 tiful locality. The size of the farms in this district 

 varies from 200 to 600 acres, the average being 

 about 300 — the rental averaging about one pound 

 per acre. The course of cropping as we recede 

 from London is commonly the four or five-shift, 

 viz.: 1. Turnips; 2. Barley; 3. Seeds; 4. Wheat, 

 or 6. Oats, Sainfoin is extensively grown on the 



