178 The Influence of tJic 



clay when a hot summer is followed by a dry autumn. The 

 greater part of the land worked by Mr. Carey's engines consists ■ 

 of strong deep Essex clay that, in spite of the unflagging energy 

 of Mr. Mechi's advocacy, still remains in an undrained state. 

 In June, 1873, I found the cracks in this land 2 to 3 inches, 

 wide. While watching the difficulty witli which two 10-horse- 

 engines, with steam up to 110 lbs., dragged through it a culti- 

 vator with all its tines removed except five, it was not difficult 

 to understand that a higher rainfall than that of 1873 might 

 help rather than hinder its cultivation. The cultivator used was- 

 one of Fowler's newest pattern, which turns upon the headlands, 

 and is much less apt to swerve and jerk about than the older 

 balance cultivators. In spite, however, of this advantage in 

 form, the hardness of the ground made it impossible to keep 

 the implement steadily to the desired depth of 10 inches. The 

 clay was torn up in great lumps, leaving the surface of shaken 

 l)Ut unmoved soil beneath it very uneven. This unevenness of 

 the subsoil was almost the only point of disparagement against 

 steam cultivation that was mentioned in the course of several 

 conversations with occasional and regular employers of steam 

 power in the neighbourhood. It was said that this unevenness. 

 caused the water in a wet season to stand in pools beneath the 

 surface, and that the land would not be so fit to carry horses in 

 early spring as it Avould have been if ploughed by horses with a 

 furrow of even depth. This is, no doubt, true ; for, when land 

 is water-logged, the deeper it is the worse it is to tread upon. But 

 horses ought never to be put upon such land until the surplus water 

 has passed away. So long as water is there it matters not whether- 

 the pond have an even or an uneven bottom : and there is this dis- 

 advantage with horse-ploughed land, that the water will flow over 

 its level subsoil instead of penetrating the rough surface of a sub- 

 soil that has been thoroughly shaken by the violence of steam 

 power, forcing its way through the hard clods of the upper surface.. 

 An inspection of the land in the last week in April, 1873,. 

 convinced me that steam cultivation caused the land to dry 

 more rapidly in spring. Among other proofs of this I noticed 

 at a short distance from Rochford two similar fields on opposite- 

 sides of the road, both of them intended' for potatoes. The field 

 on the left had been cultivated by steam, and was already 

 planted and in good tilth ; the other had been worked through- 

 out by horses, and, though it had received a greater number of 

 tillages than the first, it was not yet fit for planting. Ill effects 

 from steam cultivation are not difficult to find, but they are to 

 be attributed almost always to mismanagement. Here, as else- 

 where, loss is often incurred by rashly ploughing up a rav/ 

 subsoil : but a practice more characteristic of the district is to be 



