188 



Tlie Influence of tlie 



stated, are of opinion that the advantages of steam and horse 

 power are relatively the same in wet as in dry years. It now 

 remains to give a few examples of the far more numerous letters 

 that report the merits of steam-cultivation as being specially 

 conspicuous in the trying season of 1872. Wherever a correspon- 

 dent has a farm large enough to give full occupation for his. 

 tackle in an ordinary year, the number of acres cultivated by 

 him in the three years 1870-1872 will be printed, if given in his. 

 report. The following returns are received from correspondents^ 

 who either do not wish their names published, or whose report 

 is not given separately : — 



Table. IV. — Work done by 10 Sets of Steam Cultivation Tackle 

 in the Middle and South of England. 



1870. 



Acres Ploughed or Due 

 „ Cultivated .. 

 ,, Harrowed .. 



1871. 



1872. 



730 1,030 

 7,652 10,182 

 2,090 2,470 



896 

 9,093 

 2,284 



It will be seen that much more work was done in each of the 

 two wet years than in the very dry season of 1870. This is sO' 

 far a confirmation of the report from Essex, that drought some- 

 times hinders the work more than rain : it differs from the 

 Essex report in one respect, however, for in this return we find 

 that about 10 per cent, less work was done in 1872 than in 1871. 

 In 1872 a rainfall of a little less than 32 inches in Essex did not 

 seriously impede the work ; the greater fall in other parts of 

 England somewhat checked the work, but it is only in the 

 northern counties and in Scotland that the evil effects of the wet 

 season were felt in their full extent. It may be said that such a 

 deduction cannot be safely made from a mere collection of 

 figures, and I gladly turn from the discussion of such dry bones 

 to the more interesting reports of those who have clothed their 

 figures in the flesh and blood of individual experience and 

 comment. 



The following contribution from Mr. W. J. Edmonds, of 

 Lechlade, affords a good example of the advantages that may be 

 obtained by the energetic application of steam power in a wet 

 season. Mr. Edmonds has employed Fowler's double-engine 

 system for about eight years, on land resting on the Oolite forma- 

 tion, varying in character from a tenacious clay to light stone- 

 brash ; bis average depth of cultivation against winter on the 

 heavy soil is about six inches, and on the light soil about four 

 inches : — 



