J^Fet Season of 1872 on Steam-Cultivation. 209 



charge from the drains, but, after the knifer had been through it, 

 as soon as the rain came the drains discharged full." 



Mr. W. B. Lowe, of Eatington, near Stratford-on-Avon, says 

 •on this point : — " Deep tillage has not wholly enabled us to dis- 

 pense with open water-furrows, but has much lessened the 

 necessity of them. The autumn-ploughing for spring crops is 

 left as it is ploughed. It has not obviated the necessity of 

 draining, but it appears to make the drains much more effective, 

 as a much larger portion of the rainfall can be passed through 

 the strong clay than was possible under horse-ploughing." 



A correspondent from Kent writes : — " I have been able to do 

 away with all 7'id(/e furrows, only keeping open, as matter of 

 precaution, almost unnecessary, the load furrows through the 

 parts most liable to flood." Mr. C. Ellis, of Beddington, near 

 Lewes, is among the number of those who continue to use water- 

 furrows. Mr. J. Edmonds, of Lechlade, writes : — " Deep tillage 

 has to a great extent enabled us to dispense with water-furrows ; 

 the land not being trodden allows of the passage of the water 

 through it to the drains without staying in the soil long enough 

 to chill it, neither does the soil get so tvashed as it does under 

 horse cultivation (I am speaking here of heavy land). I have 

 never known deep tillage obviate the necessity of drains ; the 

 only case in which it would be possible for it to do so is where 

 a retentive soil rests upon a porous one. I have one piece on 

 my farm where 4 or 5 feet of clay rests on stone : had it been 

 only from 2 to 3 feet I think the steam-ploughing would have 

 shaken it sufficiently to have obviated the necessity of draining." 



The following is from Mr. Smith, of Woolston : — " My land 

 was all drained before I commenced steam tillage upon it ; for 

 on clay, and mixed gravel and clay land, drainage is the founda- 

 tion to steam tillage. Water-furrows have been dispensed with 

 ever since I commenced steam-cultivation, and not a drop of 

 water for the 19 years has ever been seen standing upon 



In the accounts already printed in full from the Northumber- 

 land and the Scottish Steam-Cultivation Companies it is stated 

 that the customers of both these companies dispense with water- 

 furrows ; to the same effect Mr. Burnet, of the Washington Steam- 

 Cultivation Company, says : — " We have dispensed with open 

 water-furrows, and think we are now better off than with them 

 before. Deep tillage by steam, I know, has enabled drains to act 

 that had ceased to do so before, but could not say whether land 

 would do without draining : in some cases it would." From still 

 further north, Mr. J. B. Greig, of the Kincardineshire Steam- 

 Cultivation Company, says, that deep tillage " has caused exist- 

 ing drains to act more equally and more perfectly. It has also 



VOL. X. — S. S. P 



