r.tS The Influence of the 



Aveeds left upon it to flourish and overrun land in seasons, 

 specially favourable to their growth. In clearing land of 

 weeds a gleaning pays much better than a harvest ; men wha 

 stop the work as soon as the land is clean enour/h, not only have 

 all the work to do over again every three or four years, but 

 whenever a wet season stops horse-hoeing and harrowing, their 

 land becomes full of the weeds they despised. The other speci- 

 ality in Mr. Smith's practice is the uniform depth of his culti- 

 vation. On many farms the land is occasionally stirred to a 

 depth of 10 inches, or even more, but the usual depth will not 

 exceed 5 inches. At Woolston it is only the land intended for 

 wheat that is cultivated 5 inches deep ; for all other crops, 

 including barley, the land is worked in autumn to a depth of 

 10 inches. After nineteen years of such work on land well 

 drained we need not be surprised if even the heavy clay-land 

 stands wet seasons better than other land. 



Although Mr. Smith's strongly-expressed opinion of the advan- 

 tage a farmer derives from having steam tackle of his own is- 

 entitled to all the weight that long experience confers, his. 

 sweeping condemnation of the contract system cannot be accepted 

 in the face of overwhelming evidence from all sides of benefit 

 derived by those who have had their land cultivated either 

 occasionally or periodically by one or other of the steaiu culti- 

 vating companies that have sprung into existence within the 

 last few years. On clay-land the work done in autumn is 

 unquestionably of the highest value and importance, but so far 

 is it from being the fact that all steam cultivation should be 

 confined to the autumn months, that in the north of England we 

 find the demand made upon those who let out steam cultivating 

 machinery is actually more severe in spring than at any other 

 time of the year. 



Mr. J. R. Bromley has employed a pair of Fowler's double 

 12-horse engines on heavy land, near Newmarket, since 

 September 1868. Steam-power enabled him and others to 

 plough their land quickly before the rains set in, and to sow 

 their whole shift of wheat, which many heavy land farmers, who 

 only depended on horse-power, could not do. Heavy land 

 cultivated by steam in the autumn of 1872 produced a first-rate 

 crop of roots, while in many instances, where only horse-power 

 could be employed, the land had to be in bare fallow for the year. 

 " No root crop means less stocky which if ever wrong must 

 certainly be so now." 



It will be noticed that those who farm clay land speak of the 

 improved crops obtained as well as the greater facility in culti- 

 vating by steam instead of horse power. The next on the list 

 of contributors writes from the alluvial soil of Lincolnshire, and, 

 although he says he " cannot see much difference in the crops " 



