Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 219 



of loss of plant may have swelled the average by making the crops 

 more equable. The root-crops have been much improved by 

 steam culture. 



Mr, Edmonds' roots this year are certainly very good indeed ; 

 and the stubbles showed well, and particularly clean. We saw 

 the engine at work ; ploughing well, with the exception of 

 making furrows of not perfectly equal size, the plough-irons (as 

 we have noticed on several farms) not being well " set " Great 

 care seems to be taken in the management of the machinery ; the 

 rope is properly dressed before being laid by for winter, and no 

 difficulty at all is experienced in moving the engine wherever 

 wanted. 



Mr. Giles Edmonds, we believe, finding that this tackle has 

 plenty of work upon its 1000 acres, is about starting an engine 

 of his own ; it having been expected at first that the present 

 apparatus could manage the heaviest tillage of both farms. 



Division 3. — South. 



No. 43. Mr. John Walter, of Bearwood Park, Wokingham, 

 Berkshire. Mr. Walter holds two farms in his own occupa- 

 tion — " Bearwood," near the beautiful demesne in which his new 

 mansion is being built, and " Tangley Farm," a few miles distant, 

 on the other side of W okingham ; both in an undulating country, 

 thickly wooded with larch, growing furze and ferns too plentifully, 

 and revealing in brooks and pits a superabundance of water. 

 Steam cultivation is practised upon " Bearwood Farm," of 400 

 acres arable and 300 pasture, presenting a tolerably level surface, 

 in fields of 20 up to 100 acres in area, but with fences not of the 

 very best-grown quick. The land is chiefly a reclaimed heath 

 (indeed, this is the character of the country for miles about) ; the 

 soil variable — in some places light, with a gravel subsoil, in other 

 parts loamy, with a clay subsoil, or a black " spewey " gravel, 

 in which water rises up, prevented from sinking by a clay stratum 

 underneath. Part requires underdrainage, and part drains na- 

 turally. A pair of horses can plough a furrow 8 inches deep, 

 but, of course, dip the share less deeply for wheat. A team of 

 14 horses is kept ; but as two of these are considered due to the 

 estate-work, the normal force for the farm is really 12 ; whereas, 

 without the steam-cultivator, 18 horses would be required, so that 

 the engine has displaced 6. This, we should say, is the estimate 

 of Mr. Henry Simmons, the manager ; for in reality only the same 

 number of horses was previously worked, but on a smaller farm, 

 the acreage having been annually increased (so to speak, "from 

 the wild "), and of course, at first starting, in a very rough con- 

 dition. 



The course of husbandry embraces about one-fifth roots, and 



