220 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



the chief benefits of the steam-work are found in the more effectual 

 manner in which the tillages are done, in more successful crops 

 of stubble-turnips, tares, and so on, and, most of all, in " much 

 heavier " root-crops, which must have increased all the other 

 crops too. 



The steam-operations consist in grubbing up stubbles for roots, 

 and cross-cultivating, for the horse-harrow to follow, with the 

 hand-rake or basket after that, in cleansing land of couch. In 

 spring the cultivator is employed in crossing the fallows, which 

 are horse-ploughed for roots ; no seed-bed (as a rule) being 

 wholly prepared by steam. We did, however, see (the first week 

 in November) a piece of good vetches coming up, which had 

 been drilled after steam tillage. The swedes on Bearwood Farm 

 are uncommonly good (" splendid," our note-book jotted them 

 down) ; they were got in directly after horse-ploughing land that 

 had been autumn-tilled by steam. 



The tackle, consisting of a Clayton and Shuttleworth's 10-horse 

 power double-cylinder portable, with a Howard's windlass, o-fur- 

 row plough, 5-tined cultivator, side-harrow, and a set of harrows, 

 was purchased in September, 1862, for 616/. ; and the cost of 

 additions, including a new rope in 1865, has been about 100/. 

 The general repairs and overhauling the engine and tackle, in the 

 autumn of 1865, cost about 35/. The engine thrashes the farm 

 corn, and on only one occasion has the cultivating-tackle been let 

 out for hire, when 30 acres in one field were cultivated twice over, 

 at IO5. per acre, and " with a profit." 



The first rope lasted three seasons ; the present rope is scarcely 

 worn at all. One windlass-pinion has been renewed, the other 

 is nearly done for, and the india-rubber " universal joints " 

 (noAv, we believe, abandoned by the makers for a more durable 

 plan) want renewing. We observed that the compensating 

 double-snatch-block was altogether out of order — in fact, 

 wrongly put together by the men. The implement at work 

 was the 3 and 5-tined cultivator ; the rate of its performance 

 is 8 to 10 acres a day. The plough is not much used : it 

 required a man walking " at the head " to assist in steering, and 

 never exceeded 5 acres per day. This points to some pecu- 

 liarity in the state of the land at the time, or to the manage- 

 ment of the tool ; for, according to what we have witnessed else- 

 where, swerving from its work is not a fault inherent in the 

 implement itself. In this soil a single anchor to a snatch-block 

 is found insufficient, and to prevent slipping or tearing through 

 the loam and gravel, two anchors are set, one behind the other. 

 Owing to this disadvantage, the Bulstrode-slings (see farms 

 Nos. 51 and 102) cannot be (or, at least, are not) worked ; thougli 

 in other places we have seen the slings used easily enough with 



