Clakke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 225 



manure was 15 tons per acre of "farm-yard," and 2^ cwt. of 

 " superphosphate." 



No. 46. Mr. Miles Rodgett, of Sandford, Wareham, Dorset- 

 shire, has reclaimed and. broken-up to tillage, out of gorse and. 

 heather, between 400 and 500 acres of poor sandy and gravelly 

 Heath, by a Howard 5-tined cultivator, and a set of " steam- 

 harrows ;" the engine being a double-cylinder 10-horse power. 

 With half a ton of coal, at 20,s. per ton, he cultivates 6 to 8 acres 

 per day. His engine-driver has lo*., ploughman 145., windlass- 

 man 125., his anchor-men 12^. each, four porter-boys 65. each 

 per week. The engine is always set down where water is, and a 

 boy to pump it costs 6'(/. a day. Removal occupies 4 horses for 

 a day. 



The whole tackle cost 500/., in February, 1864 ; and aridging- 

 plough and 400 yards of extra rope were added for 35?. Repairs 

 in two years and a half amounted to 10/. for " points " worn out 

 and porters broken. Mr. Rodgett works with 2000 yards of 

 rope in use at once, and in 1865 reported that it had gone over 

 about 4000 acres, and that it was " showing signs of weakness." 

 The cost price of the rope, we suppose, would be about 90/., or 

 5^f/. per acre, a low rate attained by lightness of work iindfoiLr 

 porter- boys. 



Division 4. — North. 



No. 47. Mr. Peter Stevenson, of Rainton, Ripon, Yorkshire, 

 occupies 390 acres of arable and 50 of pasture, including three 

 sorts of land ; about 60 acres being clay, while over the remainder 

 of the farm, each field has several sorts of subsoil varying from 

 strong loam to light sand, the geological basis being the new 

 red sandstone. The heavy soil " 3 and 4-horse land," is ploughed 

 flat in this neighbourhood, and, when underdrained, dries very 

 well ; the lighter soil abounds with large boulders, which toss a 

 steam-cultivator about " so that the men cannot ride," and occa- 

 sionally the implement is tumbled upside down — a condition of 

 ground and surface by no means favourable to steam-power 

 husbandry. 



Years before steam culture arrived in this part, Mr. Stevenson 

 had adopted the smashing-up of stubbles by horse-drawn " Ducie 

 drags." In the autumn of 1857 he purchased a 9-horse portable 

 engine of Hornsby and Sons, with a set of Woolston tackle made 

 by Humphries, and a 3-tined " Smith " cultivator made by 

 Howard. This implement, 27 inches wide, was afterwards 

 enlarged to 30 inches wide, by placing the two outer tines outside 

 the beams, so as to take in effect 3 feet breadth of work at once. 

 The engine cost 275/. ; the tackle, cScc, 205/., or 480/. in all. 

 The four-wheeled windlass has not cost 5^. in repairs ; the 



YOL. III. — S. S. Q 



