Wet Seaso7i oflS7'2 on Steam-Cultivation. 179 



found on the farms of some half-hearted men who, while they 

 call in the aid of steam, will not modify their ordinary practice 

 to suit the new agency. Heavy land that is intended for spring- 

 corn, and has been ploughed flat by steam, should not be touched 

 by horses until seed time ; those Essex farmers who adhere to 

 their old practice of throwing the land up into narrow stetches, 

 and to effect this set horses to work on the land early in spring, 

 will, of necessity, come badly off in a wet season ; the bad 

 results should not, however, be attributed to steam culture, but 

 to an incongruous blending of old and new systems. Although 

 the rainfall of 1872 was much greater than usual, an average 

 taken from the 28 stations recorded in Mr. Symons's ' British 

 Rainfall ' shows us that it was less than 32 inches over the 

 county of Essex, an amount not exceeding the ordinary fall in 

 many parts of the kingdom that are not considered specially 

 wet. We need not, therefore, be surprised to find that, though 

 here, as elsewhere, the amount of rain was a common subject of 

 comment, no serious impediment to steam cultivation was felt. 



In this district a very dry season is often quite as trying as 

 a wet one. In the summer of 1870 it was often almost im- 

 possible to penetrate the hardened surface of the soil, and still 

 more difficult to regulate the depth of the work ; the earth was 

 often torn up in huge lumps of 1 or 2 cwts. each, the tackle was 

 often broken, and the shares and other wearing parts constantly 

 required to be renewed. Delays from this cause Avould have 

 been very great if it had been necessary to send to any distance 

 for repairs or new fittings. The advantages of possessing a 

 good Avorkshop with forges and powerful lathes, 6cc., and a 

 storehouse well fitted with duplicates, was never more marked 

 than in 1870. Mr. Carey's thorough knowledge of his business, 

 and his judicious management of a large staff of men all trained 

 by himself, enabled him to overcome such difficulties with much 

 greater facility than those who work upon a smaller scale. 

 Only one instance could I find, in the neighbourhood of Roch- 

 ford, of land much injured by the wet ; and the water in this case 

 had come not from the clouds but from an inundation of the sea. 

 In October, 1872, a breach occurred in the sea-wall near the 

 mouth of the Crouch, and for 3 months a tract of low-lying land 

 was covered by 6 feet of water. In June, 1873, this land was 

 covered by a mass of rank couch a foot high ; two 14-horse 

 engines, with steam pressure over 100 lbs., were slowly dragging 

 a 5-tined cultivator a depth of only 6 inches through the still 

 moist and tenacious deposit of blue clay, and were every now 

 and then pulled up by the heaviness of the work. The policy 

 of stirring land at all in such a condition is more than dubious ; 

 but there could be no doubt of the fact that (though no si^ns of 



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