Clarke.] Report on (Steam Cultivation. 303 



Division 4. — North. 



No. 87. Mr. William Bethel], of Rise Park, Hull, East 

 Ridings of Yorkshire. Leaving Hull in a north-easterly direc- 

 tion, the Hornsea road traverses a " marsh " flat of pasture and rich 

 brown alluvial plough-land, and then, passing the town of 

 Hedon on the right, enters upon the diluvial district of Holder- 

 •ness, a slightly-undulating, strong loam, wheat and bean country ; 

 both arable and grass land lying in ridges, but these neither verv 

 wide nor high-backed. At the twelfth mile along this road we 

 come to the stately mansion of Mr. Bethel], who has three farms, 

 the home farm here, which is under steam cultivation, comprising 

 280 acres arable, with 170 of grass. The soil is a strong loam, 

 witli a subsoil of strong drift-clay containing small pebbles, in 

 some places with sand, in others gravel. Pair-horse ploughing is 

 practised ; a day's work being about 3 roods, or sometimes an 

 acre. The ploughmen, or " chaff-cutters," are, for the most 

 part, young fellows lodged and boarded upon beef and bacon, 

 and paid 8/. 10^., or 11/. each yearly wages; and, feeding and work- 

 ing their teams from half-past 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning till 

 7 at night, in summer, these are cheaper men than the ordinary 

 weekly labourers at 2s. Qd. a day. 



The farm has been prepared for steam tillage. It has a 4-feet 

 deep pipe drainage at 9-yard intervals, and drains well though 

 always ploughed in " broad work," that is, flat. The ditches have 

 been filled in, and the pipe mains led into small tanks at tlie corners 

 of the fields, each tank say feet wide and 9 feet deep ; these 

 being bricked, but not laid in cement, as the clay itself holds 

 the water, and the surplus passes away through an overflow-pipe. 

 When a field comes in for seeds, a pump is put up at the corner 

 tank ; and this water always supplies the engine, either with the 

 use of a cart or (if near) of a water-barrow. There are few hedge- 

 row ti'ees, and the quicks are kept low. Our observation on 

 wallving over the land was, that the stubbles were stout and good, 

 and the Skirving swedes a magnificent crop ; and we instinctively 

 complimented Northgraves, the bailiff, on being able to show one 

 of the cleanest farms we had met witlr in the whole round of our 

 travels ; in fact, the fields are so free from couch that even 

 forking is not needed. 



Mr, Bethell has a 14-horse Fowler set, with plough and 

 cultivator, and most of his steam work has been done with the 

 latter implement. This breaks up wheat or bean stubble after 

 harvest 9 or 10 inches deep ; the tilth then lies for a time, and 

 in dry weather is cross-scarified by horses for the fallow crop. 

 No cross-cultivating has been done by the steam-engine. A 

 portion of the farm used to be bare-fallowed ; but now all is 



