Eeed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. Ill 



Mr. Barton thinks that the possession of 300 acres of such 

 land as he farms would justify a man in attempting the use of 

 steam. The horses he sold gave him more than 100^. towards 

 his apparatus. Something more might be realised by the sale 

 of implements displaced. He uses carts for harvest, and does 

 not need more than 8 to secure it. The corn is stacked in the 

 field. The live stock kept the year round consists of 500 head 

 of sheep and 75 to 100 dairy cows. 



No. 6. The Duke of Manchester, Kimbolton, Hunts, Sept. 

 14. This farm consists of 700 acres — 210 arable, 490 pasture. 

 Our time was unfortunately too limited to allow of a visit to the 

 farm, which is some distance from the steward's office. At 

 Kimbolton station, 3 miles distant from the Castle, there was no 

 vehicle to be had to convey us, so that the time that we should 

 have passed upon the farm we were obliged to spend in walking to 

 it. The staple is a loam, the subsoil a loose and soapy clay con- 

 taining chalk-stones. It is under-drained 3 feet deep, from 8 to 

 11 yards apart. The depth of the drain now being cut is 4 feet. 

 The high ridges are gradually melting into the furrows, and the 

 fields are fast being worked on the flat. The land is such as 

 requires three horses to plough 3|^ roods a day 6 inches deep. 

 Great improvement has been made in the size and figure of 

 fields. The farm was partly taken out from forest land twenty 

 or thirty years ago. The fields were then from 3 to 12 acres. 

 They now average 25 acres ; the hedgerows are being straightened 

 and divested of timber. His Grace, in thus remodelling his own 

 farm, affords an earnest of what he is willing to allow, and 

 anxious to see effected around him. He is beloved by his 

 tenantry for his exceptional liberality. Anything like stringent 

 covenants are unheard of. The tenants are chosen for their repu- 

 tation as farmers, and then trusted to farm as they please, his 

 Grace being quite convinced, that " if they farm for themselves, 

 they will farm for him." A chivalric attachment to their land- 

 lord consequently runs through the tenantry, in proof of which 

 stands prominently out the dashing regiment of volunteer cavalry 

 in Avhich they are proud to find a place. This feeling is 

 nourished by various acts of considerateness ; for instance, the 

 Duke has allowed his steam-tackle to go out now and then to 

 break up a stubborn lot of land for a tenant with rather stubborn 

 prejudices, and generally the result has been to educe a voluntary 

 application for the tackle the following year. The 5-course of 

 cropping used to be adopted ; the roots consumed partly off, 

 partly on the land, but has given way since the introduction of 

 steam to a course of 8 shifts — roots, oats, beans, wheat, clover, 

 oats, beans, wheat. Clover could not be grown before deep 

 tillage by steam. None of the land can be trodden with sheep 



