276 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



pares a first-rate seed-bed for wheat. We saw a field of beans, 

 part after ploughing', part after cultivating, both operations done 

 by steam ; the former much the better crop, and the land cleaner. 

 The rotation on the heavy land is a G-course. Stubbles, forked 

 if requiring it, are smashed up and crossed for the fallow crops, 

 mangolds, swedes, and rape. On four or five fields " kind for 

 turnips " he takes two root-crops in succession, namely, man- 

 golds, swedes, followed by wheat, and then beans. But Mr. 

 Bomford farms like a gardener : he is not content with one 

 good crop in a year. He grows vetches, and swedes afterwards, 

 14 tons to the acre — looking to his mangolds for great weight 

 per acre. He has this year some of the best swedes we have 

 seen, grown after rape. He showed us a superb piece of turnips 

 grown between beans just removed; and another field of cab- 

 bages planted by gardeners between the rows of a pea-crop 

 that had yielded 5 quarters an acre. We are not surprised, 

 after such results, to hear Mr, Bomford say that he should be 

 " very sorry to farm without steam." We may add here that 

 w^ believe his machinery to be well managed ; and the rope is 

 properly tarred, &c., before being put away for winter. 



Mr. Bomford's experience upon sundry other points is this : — 

 Levelling high-backed lands by ploughing them down ruins 

 the soil ; but he is satisfied that, if you let the surface level 

 itself, or " tumble down of its own accord " under the gradual 

 wearing of steam grubbings repeated at long intervals, all will 

 be right, and heavy land drain well with no necessity either 

 to " ridge or cast." When a piece of levelled land is deeply 

 tilled, the water escapes quicker ; but if the surface be perfectly 

 flat, the drains should be laid deeper, though no longer wanted 

 so near together. 



No. 70. The late Mr. James Marsh Read, of Elkstone, 

 Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Mr. Read, whose sad premature 

 death has occurred since the date of our visit, was distinguished 

 as a breeder of Herefords and Cotswold sheep, and for having 

 introduced the steam-plough into one of the last regions where 

 it might be expected to prosper. For the village of Elkstone is 

 mounted on the lofty Cotswold district between Cheltenham and 

 Cirencester, at some 1000 feet altitude above the level of the 

 sea ; and it is surprising that a steam-engine should be able to 

 climb out of, or descend into, the deep valleys of the region by 

 roads resembling mountain-passes. Yet here we found not a sta- 

 tionary engine " set," but a Fowler self-moving engine and 4-fur- 

 row plough, in a field of fine clover-lea, 1000 feet (as Mr. Read 

 informed us) above the ocean level. This engine is of lO-horse 

 power, of the " old make," fitted with a narrow rope-drum on 

 the hind axletree, for haulinsr itself along the headland : and 



