228 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



horses are employed. In Norfolk about tliree horses are kept to 

 every hundred acres of light land, and on stifFer soils and small 

 farms four horses to each hundred acres. And what with 

 carting- corn, drag-raking, removing straw for stack bottoms 

 and thatching, and carrying water, with most likely some horse- 

 hoeing to be done as well, the light-land Norfolk farmer could 

 not part with one-third of his horses, even if all the harvest were 

 cut by hand, which is not at all desirable. 



But if a costly steam apparatus is to bring its full benefit to 

 these farmers, it should displace a portion of their horse-flesh. 

 This could hardly be done except by steam undertaking a part of 

 the carriage labour ; and for anything we can tell it may some 

 time be found practicable for the " double engines " to undertake 

 a portion of the corn carting. Would it be practicable to manage 

 this by setting the rows of shocks radially, pointing to one 

 corner where the ricks are to stand ; placing one engine in that 

 corner, the other engine at the far end of each row of shocks in 

 turn, and hauling by the wire ropes some broad low trucks, 

 " empties '' out, full ones coming " in," at the pace of five 

 miles an hour ? However, this at present is, of course, mere 

 "theory." 



Under existing circumstances, and when pi'oper implements 

 are brought out, probably the hiring system is best adapted for 

 the light-land farmer, who has seldom enough tillage work to 

 fully employ a powerful set of steam tackle. 



For the sake of convenience to the reader, we bring under his 

 eye, in a tabular form, a few items for comparison. (See next 

 page.) 



Section II. — Heavy-Land Farms. 

 Division 1. — East. 



No. 48, Mr. F. W. Bignell, of Loughton, Stony Stratford, 

 Buckinghamshire, farms 222 acres, besides a considerable extent 

 of old pasture ; the soil and subsoil a tenacious calcareous clay, 

 of a most unkind quality, usually ploughed in the district in 

 8-inch by 5-inch furrows by four horses, and fallowed without a 

 crop. His first season with a Woolston set of tackle was in 

 1858, an 8-horse engine being hired of a steam-thrashing 

 neighbour at 205. per day, on the condition that Mr. Bignell 

 should always have " first turn." This arrangement worked 

 pretty well until last year, when the engine proprietor bought a 

 set of cultivating tackle for himself, and Mr. Bignell had to get 

 through one year as well as he could without steam-power — a 

 new 10-horse single-cylinder engine having been now procured 



