290 Report on Steam Cultivation, [Claeke, 



that had been steam-ploughed with furrows 6 to 8 inches deep. 

 The previous crop of 1862 was barley, put in, secundem artem^ 

 by horse-work after swedes. These swedes of 1861 had been 

 prepared for by two steam-grubbings (the second " across ") in 

 autumn, then manured in spring, and the manure steam-grubbed 

 in ; that is, thrice over with the steam-cultivator did all the heavy 

 work required for fallowing and getting a clean, fine turnip-bed. 

 The "artificial" drilled-in with the seed was 3 cwts. of superphos- 

 phate per acre, and the swedes were a fine crop. The farm- 

 yard dung and superphosphate for the swedes of 1861 were the 

 sole manure applied to this field during all the succession of 

 crops ; yet after barley, beans, wheat, and peas, came a very fine 

 yield of wheat in 1866, with, what we can vouch for, a particu- 

 larly clean stubble. Mr. Savidge told us that this would be 

 farmyard-manured, and the manure steam-ploughed-in for the 

 pea crop of 1867. In fact, a new system of husbandry is being 

 practised on this farm : the strong land of this oolite district is 

 unkind for turnips, and neither the feeding-on nor carting-off of 

 roots benefits such land (in fact, Mr. Savidge says that " a bit of 

 turnips on a clay field spoils it") ; and having a few fields of 

 kind soil he is growing roots upon them every third year, but 

 on the clay portions of his farm no roots at all. We have not 

 space, in a Report embracing such a great number of farms, to 

 draw the many obvious lessons from this fine example of a new 

 system of management introduced by the steam-plough, but 

 would call to it the special attention of our readers. The general 

 result is, that having abolished dead-fallow, and changed the 

 ordinary rotation on different parts of the farm, so as to suit the 

 cropping to the capabilities of the two sorts of soil, Mr. Savidge 

 grows a greater breadth both of corn and of roots, and also more 

 summer-feed than he did before the advent of " steam," For 

 instance, this very 40-acre piece, of which we have related the 

 history, would have borne only a moderate crop of roots (with a 

 good season) instead of a more remunerative crop of peas, in the 

 year 1867, if there had been no steam-plough. While the main 

 increase of production is found in more crops, there is also an 

 augmentation of yield per acre, though to what extent is not 

 clearly and easily perceptible until averages have been taken 

 during a series of years. Mr. Savidge says that the crops are " more 

 even," and their " quality better ;" and his v/heats after steam- 

 culture have invariably been better and brighter in the straw. 

 As a natural consequence of having more crops, and (we suppose) 

 also more stock, the manual labour has been decidedly increased, 

 but the artificial-manure account remains as before ; and the 

 great and good results accomplished on this farm are mainly due 

 to the machine which, besides working the land more cheaply 



