Clakke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 277 



it bore on its name-plate the inscription, " Kitson and Hewitson, 

 No. 46, 1860." One tremendous hill that it had ascended, with 

 a couple of horses assisting-, has an incline of about 1 in G 

 (as far as we could judge), and this not for a short rise, but (with 

 occasionally pitches at a lower angle) for three-quarters of a mile 

 up. Yet Mr, Read admitted no particular difficulty in moving 

 the machinery about, and had not burned out any fire-boxes. The 

 '* road gear " has broken once, but now stands well ; and while 

 no particulars were given to us (Mr. Read's painful ill-health 

 preventing him from working out the details of repairs from his 

 accurately-preserved record of breakages, and time and cost 

 expended upon steam tillage), we believe that the items of 

 expense have been mainly for the ordinary renewal of rope- 

 shares, &c. One little "extra " in working on these hills is that 

 the water-cart requires two horses ; and the cost of coal is 20*'. 

 per ton. An idea of the peculiar conditions under which steam- 

 power has to cultivate here will be gathered from the nature of 

 one of Mr. Read's large fields stretching from the bottom of a 

 deep valley or gorge, with a very steep slope (1 in 6 for most 

 of the distance), to the brow of a hill we should think several 

 hundreds of feet higher than the other end of the field. The soil 

 at bottom is blue-lias clay ; at top, fuller 's-earth clay, with 

 inferior oolite-rock making a thin soil along the face of the 

 slope, the surface of which is completely covered with small (and 

 some big) stones. The engine traverses the headland at bottom, 

 and the anchorage works its way along the summit of the escarp- 

 ment. The plough takes three furrows up and four down ; but the 

 cultivator will not work at all, from over-balancing itself. Few 

 localities could be chosen naturally less adapted for steam 

 culture than this steep farm, part of thin brash with land-fast 

 stones, and part of very heavy fuller's-earth clay some 50 feet in 

 thickness. The climate, too, is very inclement for grain-crops 

 on account of the excessive rainfall — often producing a large 

 quantity of straw with a small yield of grain ; yet, being in the 

 south-western quarter of England, the peculiar mildness of the 

 temperature here promotes the growth of weeds and of timber, 

 beech and whitethorn both flourishing in this elevated situation. 

 We saw wheat-sowing in progress, 700 feet above the sea ; and 

 Mr. Read informed us that barleys commonly give about 32 

 bushels per acre, but not of good quality. The barley crops that 

 we saw were very short and thin ; the turnips planted in July 

 were miserably small ; mangolds are grown about every seventh 

 year. On 740 acres arable (besides 296 of pasture and planta- 

 tion) a modified 4-field rotation was pursued ; and used to keep 

 16 horses and 30 oxen at work. The steam-engine has banished 

 tlie bullocks, with the great advantage of being able to get over 



