Eeed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 131 



steam power. Since 18G1 he, like liis partner, lias clone 2000 

 acres. The Apparatus is in all respects like the former — the two 

 engines, which are employed two-thirds of their time off the land, 

 are managed by well-trained men. The staple is rather a deep 

 loam, upon a brick earth. The farm is most of it drained by 

 steam. The horses have been reduced from 18 to 14. 



The special utility of steam power has been witnessed in the case 

 of a neighbouring farm of 140 acres in very foul condition, which 

 was entered Michaelmas, 1865, by Mr. Bott, and put right, or 

 nearly so, in a single yeax', without calling in any additional power. 

 We saw the greater part of it and a splendid root-crop looking 

 very clean. First it was drained by steam, then 3 times culti- 

 A'ated with Howard's implement, twice with Fowler's plough, 

 once with breasts off, once with them on. The conversion 

 could not otherwise have been accomplished in the time or at 

 the cost, which was exceedingly moderate. Mr. Bott is a 

 thoroughly practical man ; he not only farms for profit, but 

 profitably ; his farm is well managed, and his stock well bred. 

 These two cases may certainly be considered to present the 

 claims of steam in a very favourable light in the neighbourhood 

 where they exist. 



No. 13. September 7th, Mr. A. C. King, Desning Hall, 

 Higham, Suffolk. A long ride from Bury St. Edmund's over an 

 open rolling country, timbered scantily and chiefly with fir, 

 brought us to Mr. King's, who occupies 840 acres of land which 

 have been in the family upwards of 70 years under a Mr. 

 Farmer. Of this area 700 acres are arable, of which one-third is 

 of heavy land, requiring 3 horses to plough 3 roods a day 

 fi inches deep, and the other mixed soil, upon which steam power 

 has not been used. The heavy land lies mainly on the slopes of two 

 contiguous hills, has a clay subsoil, and never before was known 

 to grow roots. We found it not only producing fine crops of 

 mangolds and turnips, but allowing of their being fed off occa- 

 sionally, which shows that drainage — rendered more effective by 

 deep cultuie — and deep culture itself, have combined to improve 

 the texture of the soil in a marked degree. The drainage is 

 done 32 inches deep IJ rods apart. The fields lie in those 

 large breadths so suitable to steam. The land which was in 

 ridge and furrow is now laid on the flat, and fed with sheep, a 

 novelty in the district on land of this sort. 400 breeding sheep 

 are kept on the farm, and also 20 to 25 cows ; and the produce 

 from all these is annually fattened on the farm for market ; the 

 sheep being sold at a year to fifteen months, and the bullocks 

 between two and three years old. The supply of water is 

 inconvenient ; it has to be all carted from a pond and well at 

 the homestead, for which one man and horse are sufficient. The 



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