260 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Clarke* 



Division 2. — West. 



No. 65. Lord Sudeley, of Torrington, Winclicombe, Chelten- 

 ham, Gloucestershire, worked a Howard set of tackle with a 10- 

 horse engine, in 1864-5, but that one year's experience proving 

 that more power was needed on strong land and in very deep 

 Avork, a 12-horse engine was procured ; the tackle now consisting 

 of one of Messrs. Howards' traction-engines, with boiler placed 

 transversely across the framing, which carries two winding-drums, 

 of snatch-lDlocks, anchors, porters, t^c, for the " roundabout " 

 system, 1600 yards' length of rope, a 5-tined cultivator, a o-furrow 

 plough, and a " traction-waggon," the total cost being 968/. In 

 a year and a half the " repairs " have amounted to 34/. 2s. lOf/., 

 chiefly from breakages of wheels or pinions, which were made of 

 cast, instead of malleable iron. The working expenses are — 

 labour, four men and four boys, li)s. a day ; water, sometimes 

 carried by boy, sometimes fetched by horse and cart, average 

 25. per day ; removal, taking 2 horses to haul out the rope, 

 occupies an hour and a half to take up and set down, exclusive 

 of time spent in travelling ; oil costs 1*. od. a day ; and coal, at 

 175. to 195. a ton delivered, costs about 125. Qd. a day. The 

 fields (now altered for the purpose) average 20 acres each ; the 

 soil is very tenacious, the subsoil a very stiff blue clay, and the 

 surface hilly, presenting some steep inclines ; and under these con- 

 ditions the steam-plough turns over about 3^ acres per day, with 

 furrows 10 to 12 inches deep. Last year the cultivator averaged 

 about 4^ acres per day, including removals and stoppages. 



The farm has only 100 acres of arable, besides 160 acres of 

 grass ; and the apparatus is let out for hire, having worked upon 

 ten different farms last year — on terms which will be noticed in 

 our Section on the Hiring System. 



Mr. Thomas Colsey, the agent, reports that the drainage is 

 considered more effectual after the steam tillage, that root crops 

 are fed-off with more advantage, and that a considerably larger 

 breadth of roots is now grown. The team-force kept consists of 

 4 horses. 



No. m. Mr. Edward Holland, M.P., of Dumbleton Hall, 

 Gloucestershire, near Evesham, Worcestershire. Sheltered in 

 the valley south of Evesham, which divides the northern spurs 

 of the Cotswolds from Bredon Hill (a bold feature in the land- 

 scape for many miles around) we found the Hall, and Park, and 

 village of Dumbleton. Mr. Holland's farming extends over 

 750 acres, of which 367 are arable ; the " Hill Farm," having 

 131 acres arable, of stonebrash with intervening beds of clay, 

 while " Cullabine Farm," in the vale, has 236 acres arable, of 

 stiff blue-lias clay, with a covering in places washed from the 



