194 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Reed. 



Upon li2:hter land it has generally been considered that steam 

 had no locxis standi whatever ; and its progress hitherto in such 

 districts is apparently very small. It seems to have been assumed, 

 as we consider somewhat hastily, that land ploughed easily by a 

 pair of horses is no place for steam. Those light-land farmers, 

 however, who have tried steam, even with the apparatus adapted 

 to heavy land, have arrived at a different opinion. Deep culture, 

 which relieves a wet soil in a rainy season, relieves a light 

 burning soil in a dry season. Though a light soil may not be 

 benefited by inversion, it generally is by deep stirring. 



Steam has been applied to light land hitherto under great dis- 

 advantages. The first attempt of our steam-plough inventors 

 was to win their laurels on stiff soil : the execution of the 

 greater task comprehended a proof of power to do the less. 

 No one knows what may be done on light land until experience 

 has been gained in the use of implements expressly adapted to 

 it. Some of the examples furnished show clearly enough the 

 results obtained on light land, even with a heavy-land set of 

 tackle, particularly No. 30. Since we went through Norfolk 

 a double-engine set of Fowler's Winding Tackle has been at 

 work upon six different farms with a 6-furrow plough and a 

 90-inch cultivator. Mr. Clare Sevvell Read, M.P., has given 

 a detailed report of what has been done ; other reports have 

 followed, all of which go far to show that steam is only awaiting 

 the manufacture of the proper implements to be as great a 

 help to the light-land as to the heavy-land farmers. With 

 the double-engine set of tackle, too, the direct pull upon the 

 implement which is always approaching the engine, enables the 

 maker to try implements of even larger dimensions than those 

 already in use. The independent method of removal is much 

 in its favour, while the large undivided areas common in light- 

 land districts enable it to work to the greatest economy. 



The hindrances are multiform. They lie principally with 

 the landowners and the tenant-farmers themselves. 



There are bright exceptions to the rule ; but the rule speaks to 

 the general indifference, as regards the introduction of steam, 

 of those who own the land of this country. Some are such entire 

 sportsmen as almost to ignore other considerations ; they there- 

 fore insist on retaining the straggling hedgerow which may hide 

 the hare, or the stubble that affords cover to the partridge. 

 Stringent rules not unfrequently came under our notice which 

 debar the tenants from mowing their corn crops, and from 

 breaking up their stubbles until the autumn is too far advanced 

 for the employment of steam : such restrictions seem to us most 

 damaging to the progress of steam culture. 



Before steam can be as generally used for tillage as it is for 



