Wet Season of 1872 on Steam-Cultivation. 201 



Harrowing. ■, 



Single Harrowing 3 6 per acre. 



Double „ 5 6 „ 



Twice '„ (across) 7 „ 



The agriculturists of the North may be the last, but certainlj 

 cannot be reckoned the least, among- those who have taken up 

 the practice of steam cultivation. The Northumberland Steam 

 Cultivation Company is a young giant of barely four years old ; 

 it commenced work in 1872 with 18 sets, and increased them 

 the next year to 20 sets of Fowler's double-engine tackle. 



For the following report I am indebted to ^Ir. Philip Hobbs, 

 the manager and secretary to the company : — 



"This Company started in January, 1870 ; 18 sets of tackle 

 were procured at different periods of that year, making an 

 average of 12 months for 11 sets ; the work done was 6164 acres 

 ploughed, 4864 cultivated, and 4458 harrowed. 



" I cannot tell you the number of days' work done in any year, 

 the men failing to keep their registers, but we never have much 

 mf)re than six months' work in the year, — three cultivating and 

 harrowing, and three ploughing and digging. If the season is 

 fine, as in this last year, all the cultivating is over by the 1st of 

 July (in 1872 we were cultivating for turnips in August), and 

 from that time, until the middle of October, we have scarcely 

 anything to do, there being no bare fallow in the district. I 

 enclose you three price cards, but must own that I have not 

 been able to obtain my advanced terms for ploughing, although 

 I anticipate no difficulty with the cultivating prices in the spring. 

 \ ery few of our customers systematically employ us, and very 

 little wheat is grown, so they are very independent of us in the 

 autumn, but very anxious for our assistance when oats, barley, 

 potatoes and turnips, have to be planted. 



" In 1872 the average rainfall in 10 places in my district was 46 

 inches, being 20 inches above the usual quantity ; this excessive 

 rainfall increased our difficulties immensely. I found on the 

 stiff clays that we could get to work before the horses, but on the 

 deep soils, such as those on Tweedside, when we might have 

 worked the implements, we could not travel on the headlands. 

 Our customers dispense with open water-furrows, but I do not 

 know of a single instance where deep tillage has obviated the 

 necessity of draining the land, in fact the deeper the cultivation 

 on undrained land the bigger the sponge for holding the water. 

 On well drained, well farmed land, I believe steam cultivation 

 hastens harvest, but on undrained ill-conditioned land I believe 

 it retards it. I observed on the former, in the winter of 1872, 

 that after steam the wheat land was comparatively dry, and the 

 crops afterwards much better than after horse ploughing, and, in 

 the past year, the bairley and turnips were much better after steam 



