208 The Injixicncc of the 



Mr. J. Darling-ton, of New Buildings Farm, Stratford, writes 

 that deep cultivation has greatly improved that part of his farm 

 on which he has used it. The land appeared to want draining 

 very badly, and was much water-logged in previous wet seasons ; 

 hut since it has been cultivated by steam it has not been water- 

 logged at all, even in the wettest seasons. The soil is here a stiff 

 stony clay, about two feet in depth, resting on a bed of strong 

 marl, and when the land is well stirred and shaken the wet 

 passes from the surface Avithout being seen. Conditions similar 

 to those in the experimental plot at Rothamsted are probably 

 not to be found elsewhere, except in land long used for market- 

 gardening or naturally rich in humus : on almost all farms 

 with an impervious subsoil provision must be made for artificially 

 removing the surplus water either by drains alone or by drains 

 supplemented by surface-furrows. We might naturally expect to 

 find the use of water-furrows most prevalent in those districts that 

 have the heaviest rainfall ; but this is not by any means the 

 case : several correspondents from the southern and eastern dis- 

 tricts say that, even with the adoption of deep cultivation by 

 steam-power, they have not yet altogether abandoned the use of 

 water-furrows, but in most cases they are given up after steam- 

 tillage has been continued for a few years on the same land. It will 

 not be necessary to print more than one or two of the numerous 

 replies that report the disuse of water-furrows, but I will give 

 every one of the exceptional cases reporting their partial reten- 

 tion. Mr. Neilson, who manages Hainault Farm, in Essex, for 

 Mr. J. Alison, writes — " Deep cultivation has enabled us in part 

 to dispense with open water-furrows, we only use them occasion- 

 ally now on heavy land so as to relieve the surface as quickly 

 as possible during very heavy rainfalls. In no case could drains 

 be dispensed with." The tackle used on this farm consists of 

 Fowler's cultivator and plough, driven by a pair of Mr. Alison's 

 engines with vertical boilers and vertical drums. 



From the same county Mr. J. Roynon, of Havering Park 

 Farm, writes, " We have not yet worked steam-power sufficiently 

 long to get the land thoroughly opened, but I believe that in a 

 few years we might dispense with a great number of water- 

 furrows. We have one piece of land in particular which was 

 the wettest of all we have, and we put the knifer through it 

 two feet deep, with one tine, three feet apart, and it has so altered 

 it that it has become as dry as any we have : but I find the 

 deeper we cultivate, the more necessary it is we should be 

 thoroughly drained to get the water out of the subsoil quickly. 

 This identical piece of land Avas drained twelve or fourteen years 

 ago, and, after heavy falls of rain, scarcely any water would dis- 



