Eeed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 103 



In tliis time (103 days) were scarified and ploughed 5G2 acres, 

 stoppages and removal included, — that is, about 5^ acres per 

 day; much less than the performance in 18GG, after years of 

 experience, and after all the land has been once deep worked. 

 This comes to 6.9. Qd. an acre, to which may be added 6.v. od. an 

 acre for wear and tear, maintenance, and interest on the whole 

 prime cost of the tackle. The horses have not been reduced ; 

 but much more work is done and more crops are taken. The 

 tackle has worked abroad ; the charges have been 155. for culti- 

 vating, and 20s. for ploughing. We saw it in operation. The 

 engine looked somewhat worn. The plough, cultivator, and rope 

 were in a good state, and the land lay in fine style. 



No. 2. Mr. C. C. Harvey, Foulness Island, South Essex, 

 September 4. To gain this farm we passed through Paglesham 

 from Stambridge, and took the ferry-boat down the Roach and 

 Crouch rivers, over the ovster-beds, some three miles, to Mr. 

 Harvey's landing-place. The island contains 5000 acres. On 

 this space 600 people live in very primitive fashion. It seems 

 scarcely credible that the post should take a week now to reach 

 any point in England and Wales from London ; yet the letter 

 which we forwarded to announce our visit only arrived the day 

 before we made our appearance, and had certainly been six days 

 on the road. The island has another approach from Southend 

 by the Maplin sands, which are about to be flooded with the 

 sewage of London. The culvert that is to bring it will cross the 

 Roach near this farm, and will run across the island. 



The 2 feet of staple consists of a series of deposits, marine and 

 fresh water, lying upon the London clay, which is found at a 

 depth of about 40 feet, the intervening strata being sand, gravel, 

 and blue clay. As with \Vallasea (No. 1), the London clay is 

 pierced for good water in numerous places by Artesian wells, 

 from 300 to 400 feet deep. INIr. Harvey's farm is so supplied. 

 Two-thirds of the island belongs to Mr. Finch, a Rutlandshire 

 squire. No permission is needed for grubbing hedgerows or 

 felling timber, for the fields, which are large, are divided by 

 ditches, and trees, if ever they did exist, now form a carboniferous 

 deposit far below the chalk which underlies the London clay. 

 Our acquaintance with the farm was made during our efforts to 

 gain the house from the rivei'-bank through a pelting rain. The 

 scene was dreary in the extreme ; it was one in which no heart, 

 save that of a duck or a heron, could take pleasure. Our observa- 

 tion tended to confirm what Mr. Harvey told us of the strength 

 of the soil, namely, that three horses had quite enough to do in 

 turning a furrow-slice 7 to S inches deep. Mr. Harvey does not 

 agree with his neighbour, Mr. Allen, in the unprofitableness of 



