Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 295 



would require 12 horses more than he has now ; and, at 44?. 

 each, the saving is 528Z. Subtract the total outgoing for steam 

 tillage — say 160?. — and the clear gain by the substitution of steam 

 for horses is 3(J8Z. a year. In the statement of the number of 

 horses saved, we believe that Mr. Pocock, with his love of mode- 

 ration, has estimated considerably below the mark ; our own 

 impression, when inquiring upon the spot, being that he saved 

 14 horses. If so, the clear gain will be 45GZ. a year on about 

 500 acres arable; a large result very much due to admir- 

 able management in making the apparatus do a great deal of 

 work. No such profit would have been derived if the 260 

 acres of ploughing had been left undone, and the steam-work 

 limited to the 210 acres of cultivation, which is about all the 

 use that some farmers would have made of the tackle. 



Mr. Pocock's arable is all heavy land, " very hard to work ;" 

 still it does not look hungry, and he explains that this is because 

 the character of the staple has been materially altered by the 

 absence of trampling and the deeper steam tillage. The strong- 

 est bits, he says, " are not like the same soil now." His system 

 of culture is to take wheat every other year, as : (1) vetches with 

 turnips after — at least on a part, (2) wheat, (3) beans, (4) wheat, 

 (5) clover or seeds, (6) wheat ; but this is not kept to invariably. 

 We saw a magnificent crop of mixed peas and beans, probably 

 6 quarters per acre ; and we were informed that better wheats 

 and much better green-crops are grown since the adoption of 

 steam tillage. 



The land is drained 2 to 3 feet deep, and Mr. Pocock is well 

 satisfied with having flattened his fields, so that not even water- 

 furrows remain. He believes that all clays will drain well, if 

 the levelling of the old high-backed ridges be done gradually ; 

 here, two or three years have been occupied in flattening them 

 by the scarifier. 



We believe the apparatus on Mr. Pocock's farms to be one of 

 the most carefully managed that is to be found ; but everything 

 seems to be equally well looked after here, — including a herd 

 of 150 to 155 cows ; a dairy with three of Keevil's cheese- 

 makers, a horse-power churn, capacious shallow tin milk-vats, 

 and numerous presses ; and also a saw-mill, where the steam- 

 plough engine " earns a living " when shut out of the fields. 



No. 82. Mr. Edmund Ruck, of Castle Hill Farm, near 

 Cricklade, Wiltshire. What we learned from Mr. Ruck, one of 

 the best known among the veterans of steam-ploughing, may very 

 well be compressed into a short compass ; seeing that his views 

 and experience have been fully stated by himself to the Society's 

 members (see ' Journal,' vol. xxiv., 1863), while a most inter- 

 esting and scientific account of his improvement of grass-land 



