Wet Season of 1872 on Steam-Cultivation. 



205 



loam and gravelly soil. The average depth of its cultivation has 

 been from 11 to 13 inches for digging, and from 7 to 9 inches 

 for spring- work. 



Table VIII. — Woek done by the Kincardikeshiee Steam Cultiva- 

 tion COMPAXT. 



1870. 



Number of Acres Ploughed . . 

 „ Dug 



„ Cultivated 



445 



7G5 



1871. 



1872. 



95 



539 



1431 



262 

 230 

 876 



It will be seen that there is here a very considerable falling off 

 in work done in 1872 as compared with 1871 ; and this is all 

 the more noticeable, since Mr. J. B. Greig, the secretary to the 

 company, remarks that "the plant till March, 1871, consisted 

 of one set, since then of two." The rainfall in 1872 over the 

 whole county of Kincardineshire, as recorded in the tables 

 compiled by Mr. G. J. Symons, attained an average of nearly 

 50 inches. Although we have found the falling off of work 

 greater as we passed northward and reached districts with a rain- 

 fall greatlv exceeding that of the south of England, we do not 

 find the advantages of steam, as compared toith horse poorer, at all 

 diminished. Mr. Greig states of the Kincardineshire district 

 that " land was sown that, but for steam, must have lain fallow. 

 The land was rarely dry enough to admit of horses treading 

 on it." 



Reviewing the whole of the evidence that has been given on 

 the effects of the wet season on cultivation by steam, and bearing 

 in mind the fact that the year 1872 was a disastrous one for 

 almost all kinds of agriculture, it is satisfactory to find that com- 

 paratively little or no inconvenience was felt in the south and 

 east of England ; while in the north of England and in Scotland, 

 though it was particularly unfortunate that such an unfavourable 

 season should occur when many newly-formed companies were 

 just starting their work, yet this ought not to discourage the 

 efforts of those who are promoting the introduction of steam- 

 cultivation — for the difficulties experienced by steam-cultivators 

 were less serious than those encountered by the general farming 

 community. The severity of the agricultural losses of that year 

 were referred to incidentally by Mr. G. Hope, when leaving his 

 farm of Fenton Barns, in terms that, but for the well-known 

 character of the speaker, might to a southerner seem exagge- 

 rated : — " I have suffered with you in the disastrous harvest of 

 1872. Nothing like it has occurred in my experience. It ha& 



