Reed.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 161 



The coal used is " Hartley's," price 205. per ton liome ; con- 

 sumption, 10 cwts. per day of 10 hours ; 7 cwts. only when under 

 cover and stationary. 



We found the tackle at work. When questioned as to the 

 advantage of the direct pull of the implement to the engine cha- 

 racteristic of this plan, Mr. Wagstaff appeared to attach less 

 importance to this than to the facility possessed for moving about 

 from field to field without assistance from horses. 



Reports of Visits to Section C. — Light-Land Farms. 



No. 24. On the 5th of September, after a day's heavy rain, we 

 visited the farm of Messrs. Blyth and Squier, known as the 

 Mucking Heath Farm, at Stanford-le-Hope in Essex. Mucking 

 is just on the edge of the London Clay formation. It occupies 

 the rising ground which overlooks the bend of the river Thames 

 below Tilbury. The soil, however, which gives birth to furze 

 and fern, has nothing of the character of clay, but belongs rather 

 to the drift or the Barton and Bagshot series of Post-tertiary 

 sands. Suffice it to say that a pair of horses makes easy work of 

 a furrow 6 inches deep, that artificial drainage is nowhere 

 requisite, and that in some fields difficulty is experienced in con- 

 solidating the soil. This farm, the property of Mr. Cox, con- 

 sists of 400 acres under the plough. It was taken in 1860 

 for the purpose of being tilled by steam power. The tenants, who 

 possessed several thrashing-machines, for which they found 

 work in the neighbourhood, thought that they might unite with 

 their other business the kindred one of contracting for steam 

 tillage. They consequently purchased two sets of tackle ; one of 

 Messrs. Fowler of Leeds, another of Messrs. J, and F. Howard 

 of Bedford. The first two years these two sets were so thoroughly 

 employed on their own farms, that they could not spare them for 

 contract work. Subsequently they have been disappointed in 

 the number of applications made for their hire. Fowler's tackle 

 has during the last three or four years sufficed for their purpose, 

 and being better suited, as they say, to their special circum- 

 stances, they have put Howard's on one side. Their own expe- 

 rience, however, of the expenses of this mode of tillage, and the 

 want of desire to employ steam in the neighbourhood, has 

 disinclined them to purchase another and more improved set of 

 Fowler's tackle, which they would have done had the results 

 of the present set justified the investment. 



A great deal has been done in preparing for the steam 

 plough. The tenants obtained permission of the landlord to 

 remove the fences, to grub up the wood and heath, and to lay 

 out the plot into blocks (the greatest stretch being 825 yards), 



VOL. III. — S. S. M 



