Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 245 



applied, with 2i cwts. of superphosphate." So that, if good 

 crops are grown, steam should not have all the credit. He 

 further says, " 1 use my apparatus more particularly after harvest, 

 to cultivate 100 acres of bean land for wheat ; if I kept it 

 for no other purpose, I would not be without it ; 1 could not 

 have put in my wheat last year but for the steam-cultivator." * 



No. 57. Mr. Jabez Turner, of Haddon Grange, Yaxley, 

 Huntingdonshire. Experience of " second-hand " apparatus can 

 hardly be given with fairness either to the manufacturers or to 

 the subject of steam culture itself, because the real value of the 

 machinery at starting is of necessity a very arbitrary and uncer- 

 tain item, depending upon the management or mismanagement 

 it may have undergone from the first purchaser. However, that 

 even second-hand " sets " are not always fearfully expensive in 

 the matter of repairs, does appear from numerous examples, 

 among which we have the case of Mr. Turner. We did not 

 visit his farm, but gather the following particulars from his 

 answers to the Society's schedule of queries. 



The occupation comprises 285 acres arable, and 145 of grass ; 

 GO acres of the arable being ver}^ hilly. The soil is a strong clay, 

 with limestone intermixed, having in parts a subsoil of very 

 strong clay. The fields lie well for steam cultivation, averaging 

 about 23 acres each ; some alterations have been made by 

 throwing the smallest inclosures together, but, with the exception 

 of these cases, it has not been necessary to make new roads or 

 alter headlands. In 1862 Mr. Turner bought a second-hand set 

 of the Woolston tackle (manufactured by Howard of Bedford), 

 together with a Fowler's small plough, and a second-hand 

 10-horse engine made by Horsfield of Leeds. The price of the 

 engine was 150/., to which must be added 15/. in repairing, 

 making 165/. The second-hand tackle cost 155/; the plough, 

 05/. ; and a length of new rope, 25/. ; altogether 245/., or a total 

 of 405/. for the whole. On first commencing, the hindrances 

 were frequent from breakages, but as all the land has now been 

 subjected to the plough or cultivator, and is becoming more 

 level, the stoppages now are very few, excepting the delays 

 from unsuitable weather. The ordinary wear and tear is stated 

 by Mr. Turner at 12/. per annum, and, adding 5 per cent, 

 interest upon the prime outlay, and 5 per cent, upon somewhat 

 less than the whole outlay, for depreciation, say 36/., the yearly 

 cost of the machinery will be 48/. The number of days' work 

 in each year has not been taken account of, but during 1865 

 the engine was at work on the farm for 91 1- days ; perhaps 



* In the wet autumn of 1866 I sowed my wheat broad cast, cultivated it with 

 Howard's implement harrows, picked it afterwards, and the wheat comes well. — 

 T. K. 



