116 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Eeed. 



adjoining' farm cultivated by steam, informed us that lie worked 

 by tlie piece, and paid 2s. Qtd. per acre for 3-tine, and Is. Qd. 

 for tlie 5-tine scarifier, including all expense incurred in re- 

 jnovals, save the horse-power required. 



The coal used is termed " Hucknal Hard," price 14s. per 

 ton at home ; consumption, 12 cwts. per day of 10^- hours. 



No. 8. Mr. Cranfield, Buckden, Hunts, September 17th, 

 This fine farm of 1000 acres has not long been rescued by the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners from the dominion of wood, scrub, 

 and weed. Under their hands it was drained 4 feet deep 10 

 yards apart, bisected by a good main road, laid out in square 

 fields, a new house and homesteads were built, and all was 

 placed in the keeping of a spirited and intelligent man. The 

 property then passed into the possession of the Bishop of Peter- 

 borough. Fully 600 acres of the land is stiff and loamy — what 

 is termed "woodland," with clay subsoil, intermixed with chalk 

 stones. Three hoi'ses plough an acre, 6 inches deep, in 10 hours. 

 The remaining 250 acres are easily ploughed with a pair of 

 horses. The water is good. Part of the land drains into a 

 large reservoir, and 5 wells have been sunk to supplement the 

 natural pond-supply. Mr. Cranfield, although he sees no benefit 

 from Steam Cultivation to drainage, confesses that he grows 

 roots on land that never produced them formerly, and feeds them 

 off too. He grows 150 acres of roots, and has never lost a crop 

 on this stiff land since he has employed steam. That double the 

 corn is grown, compared with the produce of the same area a 

 few years ago, is not a result that can be attributed entirely to 

 steam — the large head of stock, averaging 1000 sheep and 200 

 beasts, has something to do with it — and the expenditure of 

 about 3000/, per annum in cake, corn, and artificial manure, is 

 not an item that can be omitted from the calculation. The 

 work on this farm is said to be never in arrear, " nothing is left 

 to be done in the spring." The 4-course system of cropping' is 

 generally observed in the district. Mr. Cranfield is impatient 

 of this restriction, it being his opinion that those who have 

 enterprise to farm up to the spirit of the time, making large 

 outlay in artificial manures, feeding stuffs, and machinery, should 

 farm with unshackled hands. It is not to be supposed, he says, 

 that a man will lay down money in this manner if he is pre- 

 vented from doing- as he likes. " One hundred acres of my 

 land is in roots, one hundred and sixty in seeds, and the 

 rest is corn. Putting what I do into the land I must and will 

 farm as I please." He considers that a yearly tenancy and 

 the 4-course system are antagonistic to steam culture. If the 

 land becomes too strong to grow crops that will stand, some 

 chanire of rotation must be introduced to tame it. Where a head 



