Eeed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 141 



works ; one is an instructed farm -labourer. An engine-shed is 

 being prepared. No dressing is used with the rope. 



This company has already experienced the difficulties that 

 will besot most similar undertakings. The members all require 

 the tackle at the same time. The preference is of course given 

 to shareholders ; these are comparatively few — or at least the 

 farmers amongst them are few — and the double set is rapid in its 

 work. 



Amongst the landowners in the district there is a disposition 

 to favour steam : they are ready to allow their tenantry to make 

 the necessary improvements. It is, however, the cost of the 

 tackle which restricts its application. 



This visit was made after such a tremendous rain that no 

 attempt was made to see either the work done or the appa- 

 ratus. 



No. 18. Mr. George Morgan, Ninfield, near Hastings, Sussex, 

 September 24th. — This gentleman occupies his own land — 2(J0 

 acres — out of which 30 grow timber, and 20 are in grass, 

 leaving 210 acres of arable, a loamy clay lying on a sand-rock 

 subsoil very pervious to water. Only 70 acres have required 

 drainage. In some portion the drains are laid 4 feet deep, 

 2 poles apart ; the rest is drained irregularly to catch springs. 

 There is a good supply of water strongly impregnated with 

 iron. The farm did lie in fields of 6 or 7 acres. The 

 average size is now 20 acres. Much has been done on this 

 farm since its purchase in 1861 to fit it for steam cultivation. 

 The surface, however, is very hilly, and it is so intermixed with 

 other holdings that straight fences are out of the question, unless 

 adjoining landlords will agree to "give and take." Through 

 the farm runs a public road. 



Mr. Morgan estimates that the apparatus has supplied the 

 place of 5 horses during 3 years. At one and the same time a 

 house and farm buildings had to be erected, and a foul farm to 

 be made clean, which it certainly now is. It would have been 

 " impossible " for him to have hauled the building materials, 

 and done the work of the farm with less than 12 horses. When 

 the haulage was being done, the farm work must have suffered 

 neglect. He has had not more than 7 horses. 



The course of cropping pursued is as follows : 1, roots ; 2, 

 barley or oats ; 3, seeds ; 4, wheat. The old system in Sussex 

 was wheat, oats, and fallow and peas, where no beet. The crops 

 are continually increasing — a fact which is due to a liberal 

 supply of manure and good drainage, as well as to deep culture. 



The Apparatus Avas bought in the spring of 1861 of Messrs. 

 Howard. It consists of a 10 - horse power double - cylinder 

 portable Engine, bearing Clayton and Shuttleworth's name ; a 



