Clarke.] Report on iSieam Cultivation. 299 



lie has improved his grain-croppino^ at least one imperial quarter 

 (8 bushels) per acre. Larp^e as this result is, it agrees with the 

 estimate of Mr. Holland, M.P., of Dumbleton Hall {see No. 60), 

 and some other adopters of steam cultivation. 



An excessively wet season, in a district where the annual rain- 

 fall is about 26 inches, does not seem to tell against laying land 

 perfectly flat, though some fears were entertained for the most 

 heavy and sticky clays. There are no springs, and, with the 

 general surface undulating slightly, the opened water-furrows 

 are capable of preserving the ground from standing water. 



No. 83. Mr. T, Pearce Brown, of Burderop, near Swindon, 

 Wiltshire. We Avere not fortunate enough to find Mr. Brown at 

 home, so that for what information we obtained his men and our 

 own eyesight must be responsible, Burderop, miles south of 

 Swindon, is situated upon the line of Lower-greensand hill 

 which rises out of the Kimmeridge clay valley in front of the 

 lofty range of chalk Downs. The farm, of 1000 acres, comprises 

 about 600 acres of arable, a strong adhesive calcareous loam, 

 1 or 2 feet deep, resting upon loose, chalky rubble, with 

 about 3 feet depth to the solid chalk rock. It requires no under- 

 drainage ; and the land, lying in very spacious rectangular 

 inclosures, with neatly-kept fences and scanty timber, is always 

 ploughed flat. The practice was for 3 horses to turn a furrow 

 5 inches deep. 



Mr. Brown has another farm of about similar size, but of more 

 flinty character, at Baydon ; but we believe that the principal 

 use of steam culture has been here, the apparatus being a 

 Fowler 12-horse set, with anchorage and clip-drum, bought in 

 1861. In that year it ploughed more than 840 acres ; the next 

 year, bringing a wet season, it ploughed and scarified only 530 

 acres. The most tangible and immediate result was the banish- 

 ment of three teams, or 12 oxen, the present team-force being 14 

 horses.* The 4-furrow steam-plough, in a wet time or working 

 in short lengths, does 4 acres a day ; at other times, however, 

 8 or 10 acres a day ; and it has done as much as 11 acres in a 

 day. The work is often 10 or 12 inches deep ; sometimes done 

 with the smooth mould-boards, sometimes with the digging- 

 breasts ; and they have a drag-harrow to work alongside the 

 plough. Occasionally they have ploughed 8 or 9 inches deep 

 for wheat ; and the drill has followed while they were at this 

 deep work ; but this does not answer after seeds. Some of the 

 land is bare-fallowed ; but for a fallow-crop, the ground is dug up 

 shallow in the autumn and crossed more deeply in March. 



* These oxen have since been restored, as in very wet seasons the steam-plough 

 cannot be used to advantage. It is a fine-weather implement, and cannot always 

 get through enough work for this soil, which is highly benefited by the sun and 

 wind.— T. P. B. 



