122 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Reed. 



that the farewell wheat-crop of one outgoing- tenant is declared 

 not to have exceeded 12 to 16 bushels per acre. Drainage, of 

 course, was the fundamental process in the amelioration 



" The two holdings in one ring-fence numbered no fewer than 

 51 inclosures, averaging not quite i) acres each ; and what with 

 meandering watercourses, and straggling fences of a wildly 

 picturesque description, those innumerable boundaries were 

 awkward for cultivation, wasteful of ground, injurious to cropping, 

 and costly to keep in repair. By exchanges of plots with neigh- 

 bouring owners, the outside fence was made rectilinear and 

 symmetrical ; the bill, mattock, and spade, attacked the formid- 

 able net-work of internal (' infernal ' our note-book seems to 

 have written it) hedges ; the axe brought down the pride of 

 scattered timber ; and the spade, pick, and earth-cart straightened 

 watercourses, filled up old channels, and excavated clean-cut, 

 direct, deep outfalls instead ; while five straight new roads were 

 struck across the old medley of inclosures, dividing the whole farm 

 into seven spacious plots of a generally quadrilateral figure. The 

 work is now complete ; and Mr. Prout having kindly opened his 

 bailiff's books to our inspection, Ave are enabled to state how 

 much has been the cost of the whole. Of bushy hedge-row, 

 a length of 514 chains (that is, nearly 6^ miles) was stocked, 

 and the ditches alongside levelled in for an outlay of 155/. 12^. 

 Now, observe how immediate is the profit to Mr. Prout as owner 

 of the soil. The abolished fences having averaged 7 yards in 

 breadth (measuring between the extreme limits of the plough on 

 both sides), an addition has been made to the estate of no less 

 than 16 acres, now lying in strips in all directions across the 

 large fields, open to every operation of good tillage and manur- 

 ing. The cost price of the land in 1861 was 35/. per acre, every 

 item of expense included; and therefore the 16 acres gained 

 represent a value of 560/. The hedge-roots were given to the 

 labourers ; the brushwood was either buried in drains or used 

 for burning ; but the 920 trees, consisting of pollards and inferior 

 timber, came in for gates, gateposts, and other stuff, estimated 

 as worth altogether about 42/. Here, then, we have a present 

 return of no less than 602/. for an expenditure of 155/. 12.'?. during 

 four years. . . . 



" This reclamation of waste ground by the simple demolition 

 of useless fences, forms a striking example of safe and quick 

 profit upon an easy outlay, sure to be imitated (one would think) 

 over tens of thousands of acres. The earthwork of filling up 

 old watercourses, cutting 130 chains' length of new ones, and 

 levelling in a few moats, ponds, and waste places, cost 155/. 12^., 

 reckoning 8s. per day for a pair of horses engaged in carting. 

 The area of ground thus acquired is about 2^ acres, which, at 



