J'Fct Season of 1872 on Steam-Cultivation. 185 



spring: no doubt farmers are glad to avail themselves of steam 

 cultivation, as they are all anxious to get their crops in, and 

 labour is scarce ; but with prolonged dry weather in autumn, 

 farmers (at any rate with the high price coal has been at) have 

 done a great deal of their work with their own horses, and we 

 have had many miles to travel to get work. I have omitted ta 

 add that (as might be expected), in the gravelly districts we 

 work in, the excessive wet of 1872 did not make so much differ- 

 ence : see Return of the Piercebridge set of tackle." 



" Work was much more plentiful in 1872 than in 1873, as 

 other sets of tackle were within reach during the latter year." 



The average prices charged by this Company for cultivating 

 8 or y inches deep are — After a crop, once over, 9s. Qd. ; twice 

 over, 15^. 6r/. After digging, once over, 8^. 6r/. ; twice over, 

 14.?. Of/. Ploughing 12s. ^d. to 16s. per acre. 



Let us now stop to consider the exact import of the evidence 

 that has been given. Each particular case is undoubtedly an 

 instance of either a diminution or a total loss of the advantages 

 that steam generally gives over horse-poAver in tillage ; but is it 

 equally clear in each case that this was a necessary result of the 

 wet season ? 



No one probably would be more ready than Mr. Ellis to 

 admit that his loss resulted from an accident that is as likely to 

 happen in a dry as in a wet season. But for that accident he 

 would probably have been able to report an increased advantage 

 over horse-power in a season in which it was particularly 

 desirable to sow wheat and beans early. The instances given 

 by Mr. Lowe prove simply this, that on a strong lias clay it 

 was impossible when the land was saturated with rain to culti- 

 A'ate by steam ; cultivation by horse-power was possible indeed, 

 but it is doubtful Avhether it was beneficial. The advantage that 

 Mr. Lowe speaks of " in being able to accomplish much work in 

 a little time," he did not stop to avail himself of. By using 

 horses when he could not use steam he obtained as bad a crop as 

 his neighbours ; but we can hardly accept this as an instance of 

 a diminution of advantages in the use of steam : it is rather an 

 example of the bad effects of abandoning steam-cultivation even 

 in an exceptionally bad season. A full faith in the advantages, 

 of steam would have left the ground untouched until the head- 

 lands were dry enough to carry the engines ; if then it had been 

 necessarj- to take peas or some other crop instead of beans, the 

 result could have been fairly compared against the bean-crops 

 obtained from horse-ploughed land. The diminished advantages 

 must not be put down simply to the wet season, but to the want 

 of confidence that, in the face of a wet season, abandoned the 

 coigne of vantage that steam-power affords. 



