28-1 Report on Steam Cultivation. [ClAEKE. 



water of the adjacent fields. When emptied by the engine, it is 

 sure to be filled again at the next rainfall ; and the cost of digging, 

 laying the bricks, and of the 1500 bricks, was hi. 12*". od. In 

 his pamphlet, ' Progressive Agriculture' (published in 1858), 

 Mr. Williams well remarks how superior is a tank to a pond : 

 occupying scarcely any ground space, preserving the water from 

 evaporation, being safe from the injuries of frost or dry weather 

 (so ruinous to ponds if not full), and costing three-fourths less in 

 proportion to volume of water contained. And he describes a 

 simple but very ingenious method for moulding dove-tail bricks 

 to form the barrel-arch of a tank or well of any given diameter. 

 The importance of plentiful supplies of field-water is noticed in 

 several parts of our Report ; and indeed, in many localities, the 

 steam-engine and the water-drill, together, really demand this 

 provision of drink before they can go to work without an un- 

 reasonable expenditure in water-carting. Mr. Williams made 

 short work with his obnoxious hedge-rows and field timber, and 

 curiously enough, he used to affix grub-hooks and chains round 

 old hedge roots, and by a slow-motion roller on his ploughing 

 engine, tear them out of the ground, 7 or 8 stout roots at a time. 

 The same operation he applied to big trees ; opening the soil on 

 one side for a fall, cutting off a iew of the lateral roots, and then 

 pulling a tree down bodily by a chain connecting the top with 

 the engine — which with its roller hauled with the force of 70 

 horses. It is surprising, also, what long steep hill-roads Mr. 

 Williams' engines traverse with little difficulty. They have had 

 no difficulty or mess with the engines on wet or soft land. If the 

 wheels begin to "skid," they are not allowed to "burrow like 

 rabbits ;" but the engine is stopped, and stones picked off the land 

 are put in the holes before the wheels, or else pieces of wood 

 which are carried along with the engine for this purpose. 



Mr. Williams has an 8-horse engine and a 6-horse engine of 

 his own design ; in fact, his old engines, which were exhibited at 

 the Salisbury Meeting of the Society, and also a 12-horse Fowler 

 engine and anchorage set, which we saw at work. This engine 

 (manufactured by Smith of Coven) is of the now antiquated 

 make, with a number of V-groove drums instead of a single clip- 

 drum, and (as Mr. Williams said) does "shockingly bad" by his 

 rope. A Fowler 4 -furrow plough was making extremely good 

 work, at a cost, we were told, of about ^s. per acre. It would 

 take 4 horses with the gallows plough of the county, to turn over 

 an acre in a day at the same depth ; the custom of the neigh- 

 bourhood, however, is to plough shallow, with 3 horses. The 

 other implements used are a 9-tined cultivator, of 7 feet width, 

 constructed by Mr. Williams, .with the tines " in three's" upon 

 three lever-frames which rise and fall like the coulters of a drill; 



