298 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Clarke. 



little autumn cultivation ; but he had ploughed 600 acres since 

 the 1st of May, and all his wheat-sowing was finished. In 1865, 

 not a single acre of the ploughing was done by horses. We noticed 

 a little couch on one of the headlands, and the explanation of 

 this given us was, that the headlands are worked by horses and 

 not by the steam-plough. After all the wheat is in, the clover- 

 leas are steam-ploughed for beans, which are sown on the stale 

 furrow. 



The apparatus now used is a double-engine 14-horse Fowler 

 set. Mr. Ruck tried the roundabout, the clip-drum single-engine 

 and anchorage, and now declares himself warmly in favour ot the 

 two-engine system. The travelling-anchorage, he thinks wrong 

 under any circumstances, for now he can finish up in one field 

 and begin the next in about 10 minutes, which saving of precious 

 time is worth anything on a large farm. Three men work the 

 tackle, Mr. Ruck paying the engine-men 1/. a- week each (ordinary 

 wages being 10s. a week, or rather averaging about 13s. a week 

 the year through) ; and his hands being good fellows, and treat- 

 ing him and his machinery well, he does not care to begin piece- 

 work. The average day's ploughing with one engine used to be 

 8 acres ; with two engines it is 10 acres a day. We picked up a 

 good notion from Mr. Ruck as to getting water from the field- 

 wells or elsewhere : place the pump-barrel so low that the 

 " bucket" is under the water-level, and you find the pumping so 

 much easier that a boy can do the " water-work " of a man. 



Mr. Ruck can never be persuaded to go back to the old slow 

 horse-system, with all its trouble and its scamping of work ; 

 and (as he exclaims, with characteristic expression) " What a 

 life the poor fellows used to lead ! " He could never think of 

 lowering his men again to the level of followers at the plough- 

 tail. He has done some little steam-work for other people ; but 

 can seldom spare the tackle for the purpose, and his opinion is 

 that for small farms the hiring system is much better adapted 

 than the doubtfully feasible partnership of three or four farmers 

 in an apparatus. 



We do not know what is the total yearly expenditure here 

 upon steam cultivation ; it may be considerably more than the 

 sum saved by displacement of teams, but the following items of 

 advantage will be readily appreciated : — Mr. Ruck (like Mr. 

 Hemsley No. 62) said that he found he could do the work of 

 a horse with Qcl. worth of coal. As to effects upon the farm, 

 the staple-soil, formerly 5 Inches in depth, is now 7 or 8 inches 

 deep ; a considerably increased head of stock is kept, owing to 

 the larger production of green keeping and roots, as well as to 

 the absence of the working bullocks ; and, what is very remark- 

 able, Mr. Ruck declares that, by the use of the steam-plough, 



