Wet Scaso7i of 1S72 on Steam-Cultivation. 211 



the Durham district ; Mr. G. Hodg^kinson, M.P., from North- 

 gate, Newark ; and Mr. J. C. Robinson, from Stevington, 

 Bedford. 



Mr. Smith, of Woolston, writes, — " Steam-cultivation has not 

 (while growing red wheat) hastened or retarded the commence- 

 ment of harvest ; but for the last three years, during which I have 

 grown white wheat, it has done so, for in each year I have been 

 able to begin cutting my wheat five or six days earlier than my 

 neighbours could under horse-culture ; and there is an additional 

 gain in this beyond time — that of getting a wheat of a better 

 quality, and as many bushels per acre of it. I am not com- 

 paring against Rivett's." 



Mr. J. R. Bromley, of Playford jNIount, near Woodbridge, 

 says, — " Drainage and steam-cultivation certainly hasten the com- 

 mencement of harvest. Mr. J. Darlington, of New Buildings 

 Farm, Stafford, also believes that harvest is hastened ; while 

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

 that " steam-ploughing would appear to retard the too rapid 

 ripening of the crops, but it enables spring tillage to be begun 

 earlier, and consequently places some crops in a more forward 

 condition." It thus appears, amid some difference of opinion, 

 that the balance of evidence is slightly in favour of the view 

 that the time of harvest is in some degree hastened, and with 

 greater unanimity it is shown by experience that a better crop is 

 obtained after steam than after horse culture. Better in some 

 cases, because a higher class of grain can be sown ; in others, 

 because the crop is more bulky or more even : while on hot and 

 dry soils the deeper tillage prevents the crop ripening prematurely. 

 As the general result of this inquiry we may say that, though 

 the use of steam-power has not enabled those who have adopted 

 it to pass unscathed through such a season as that of 1872, 

 yet the heavy rainfall of that year has rather increased than 

 diminished the confidence they feel in its superiority over horse- 

 power in the cultivation of the soil. 



VI. — On Concrete as a Building Material for Farm Buildings 

 and Cottages. By George Hunt, of Evesham, Architect and 

 Surveyor to the Royal Agricultural Society. 



This Paper has been prepared, at the request of the Journal 

 Committee, with the view of bringing the merits of concrete as 

 a building material clearly and practically before the readers of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society's ' Journal.' 



The question whether the use of concrete is likely to reduce 

 . P 2 



