Eeed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 130 



Cod of Work. 



^lanual and Horse-labour : — £. s. d. 



Engine-man 036 



Windlass-man 030 



Ploii2;hnian 016 



2boys, 9f(! 16 



2 anchor-men 04 



Horse and boy 040 



17 6 



Coals 8 



Oil ..010 



16 6 

 X.C. — Daily wage in the neighbourhood, Is. 10c?. Experience has proved to 

 Mr. Battcock that piecework by steam has cost double in repairs. Coal — 

 "Langley hards," 15s. 9c?. per ton home; consumption, 11 ewts. per 10 hours. 



The straw of steam-drilled wheat is found to be much stronger 

 than the other. The seed, being deposited upon a hard floor, 

 flourishes better, grows with stouter straw, and less flag. Labourers 

 at harvest generally evade such crops. 



Steam has made little way in the fens. The anchor of the 

 lighter sets of tackle will not hold, and for the heavier the land 

 is too rotten. Mr, Battcock is of opinion that no man estab- 

 lished in business with less than 500 acres should embark in 

 steam. A young man beginning might do so with 300 acres 

 of ploughed land. The cases are different where a man has all 

 to buy, and where he has to dispose of the power that has served 

 him to make way for that which is to serve him better. A 

 man already possessed of horses and implements would have to 

 sacrifice 100/. in quitting them for steam. Had this gentleman 

 to start again, he most emphatically stated that he would do so 

 with the apparatus he now has in preference to any other ; and 

 that he would never more attempt to farm without steam. Has 

 long given up keeping separate accounts. Harvesting is done 

 with carts. 



No. 17. Mr. Thomas Hammond, Penshurst, Tunbridge, 

 Kent. This gentleman's farm consists of 540 acres, about 

 half pasture and half arable, a stiff clay, and likely to benefit 

 from deep culture. He has only entered upon it within the last 

 twelve months ; but his case is remarkable, as he is one of a 

 company, of twenty shareholders, which has been formed, one- 

 half being farmers, to buy and work a set of Fowler's tackle. 



The Appaj-alus was bought Sept. 1865. It consists of Fowler's 

 two engines of 11-horse power, double cylinder, traction, 800 

 yards of rope, a 1-furrow plough, a 7-tine cultivator ; cost 1573/. 

 The engines are not fitted with the clip, but with winding- 

 drums. 



