230 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



for the present autumn work. The new system of tillage lias 

 banished the bare fallow altogether, enabling turnips and swedes, 

 and a few mangolds to be grown. One piece of turnips that we 

 saw is but a moderate crop ; the swedes are exceedingly good, 

 and remarkable for being the produce of such land. The fallow 

 crops are clean, and only a few portions of foul ground appear 

 on the farm. The rotation is (1) turnips, with vetches introduced 

 in part ; (2) barley ; (3) seeds ; (4) wheat ; (5) barley or 

 " pulse," — that is beans, peas, or both mixed. The tillage con- 

 sists in smashing up the stubbles in autumn, and then, after the 

 ground has laid for some time, without any raking, picking, and 

 burning of couch, trenching up into yard-wide drills and ridges by 

 a 4-horse double-mould board plough before Christmas. In spring 

 a 3-tined grubber, drawn by four horses, is taken through (that 

 is lengthwise along) each ridge — tearing down, without mixing 

 up the outer coating of winter-pulverized earth with the raw 

 inside. The ground is then worked by harrowing, (Sec, and 

 farm-yard manure ridged-in in the ordinary manner at sowing 

 time. 



The wheat stubble for barley or pulse is also broken up by the 

 cultivator, and sometimes " crossed ;" and while part of the 

 clover lea is ploughed for wheat by horses, part is smashed up 

 for wheat, with very good results if done early. We were 

 shown one field of wheat, part upon ploughed, part upon culti- 

 vated land, the latter decidedly the better crop ; but then the 

 comparison is not fair, because here the clover had been mown 

 twice, whereas the inferior produce is after clover mown once 

 and then grazed ; it being well known how the increased roots 

 of clover that has twice sent up tall stalks and leaf will feed the 

 succeeding corn. Occasionally Mr. Bignell has sown wheat 

 broadcast, and then steam-tilled it in. Sheep eat off the turnips, 

 swedes, and mangold, and their folds are smashed up for the 

 barley seed-bed. Mr. Bignell does not approve the Woolston 

 combined cultivator and drill for breaking-up and sowing at one 

 operation. He is eloquent in favour of the Woolston cultivator, 

 of keeping the weeds at top and killing them by a " crossing " 

 after their first vegetation ; and he denounces turn-over ploughing, 

 except for a few special purposes. Being a bit of a mechanic in 

 taste, he has attached a couple of tines behind the " No. 3 " 

 cultivator, so as to form at pleasure a 5-tine or 3-tine implement, 

 and thus save the expense of having two separate frames, wheels, 

 &c. The horse-cultivator we have mentioned, as tearing down 

 the ridges in spring, is one of a pair that Mr. Bignell started 

 when suddenly deprived of his engine. In form it is just like 

 the Woolston 3-tiner, only smaller and lighter, 20 inches wide, 

 so as to break up about two feet breadth at once. The peculiar 



