Claeke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 253 



have been gradually reduced to the flat, without injury to crop- 

 ping, and without materially affecting the drainage excepting 

 that this is now " more effectual." The land is all pipe-drained, 

 and water does not stand on the surface after the heaviest rains — 

 though this drenching season has shown it in one spot on the 

 farm. It should be named that the average annual rainfall of this 

 locality is the moderate one of about 25 inches. Although the 

 drainage may be said to have improved, rather than the con- 

 trary, Mr. Watts finds that the deeper staple makes a worse lair 

 for feeding off green and root crops by sheep. 



The ability to work this strong land at the best time — that is 

 in dry weather and in autumn — has given a generally-increased 

 yield to the crops ; though G or 7-inch deep ploughing has been 

 found to be 2 or 3 inches too deep for wheat-seeding, and loss of 

 yield has been experienced where it was practised. A still 

 greater gain than the augmented produce per acre has been a 

 larger acreage of cropping grown. Not a greater breadth of 

 roots ; because Mr. Watts does not get his best grain-crops after 

 them : but he has more corn and less fallow, — the usual 4-course 

 system of the neighbourhood being modified to a 5-course by 

 taking two white-straw crops together. 



We made inquiries as to the special nature of the repairs, 

 breakages, &c. Mr. Watts reports that the clipping-pieces on 

 the drum have held good through all the work ; he has re- 

 placed some of them, but has had nothing like a complete new 

 set ; and there is no excessive grinding or damaging of the rope 

 by their action even in the hardest pulling. Many of the small 

 stoppages which arise in the course of a day, he attributes to 

 occasional troubles with the slack-gear on the implement, from 

 inattention in keeping the pitch-chains tight, from dirt or pebbles 

 getting into the ratchets, the spiral springs, or the bearings ; and 

 so on.* Would it be advisable to box-in this portion of the 

 apparatus? No objection whatever has been found against so 

 heavy a motor as a 14-horse self-travelling engine in this hilly 

 clay-district ; the employer being careful not to take it out when 

 the weather is utterly unsuitable. Indeed, Mr. Watts is so 

 satisfied on this point, that he has procured another engine, and 

 is altering the present one for working on the double-engine 

 system. 



Two items of expense in the case of this tackle — one arising 

 from a faulty principle of construction now abandoned by the 

 maker, and another from ignorance or mismanagement on the 

 part of the men at starting — it would be unfair to charge as part 

 of the regular cost of steam cultivation. Mr. Watts' " breakages " 



* The double engine will remove all difficulty about slack rope-gear.— T. W. W. 



