308 Report, on Steam Cultivation. [Clat?ke. 



4 hours (though it has been done in 2 hours), but it makes no allow- 

 ance, on the other hand, for the use of the engine in thrashing the 

 farm corn. And 60Z. a-year for "repairs, &c.," (i.e. 40 days work at 

 1/. lOi.) does not leave a margin for interest and depreciation, 

 even on a low first-cost, when the 47/. for actual repairs and 

 rope has been deducted. We do not think it worth while to 

 estimate closely the total cost of work done with a second-hand 

 tackle, because the value and condition of the apparatus at starting 

 being unknown, the calculation would be no guide to Avhat might 

 be experienced with new machinery ; but at the above figures 

 the total cost of the cultivating was 85. lOd. ; of the ploughing, 

 15.S. per acre ; and of the digging, lo^. 2fZ. per acre. It must 

 be remembered, however, that this ploughing was done 12 inches 

 deep, and the digging 12 to 15 inches deep. 



In 1866, better men made greater economy in the work. For 

 10 days they cultivated 91 acres, or fully 9 acres a day, at no 

 less a depth than 16 inches, the deepest work we have met with 

 on any farm, excepting Mr. Wright's of Beal (see No. 94), at a 

 cost of 65. 3c?. per acre. And in 4|^ days they ploughed, 6 inches 

 deep, 26 acres, or about 6 acres a day, at 9^. A.d. per acre. Since 

 then it has been found that an average day's work is about 5^ or 

 6 acres of ploughing or digging, or 10 to 12 acres of culti- 

 vating. 



The great depth of Mr. Hawking's work demands a few words. 

 We found the engine at work in a piece foul with " wicks " (for 

 the outgoing tenant was good enough to leave a few playthings 

 for the incomer to amuse himself Avith, not to mention one field 

 on which a crop of seedling (!) docks came up so thickly that a 

 man could scarcely set his foot down without treading on one of 

 these friendly plants) ; it was making splendid work Avith the 

 digger, a good 12 inches deep by the landside of the furrow, and 

 at the rate of 7 acres a day. Mr. Hawking is not a bit nervous 

 about burying the couch, which is of the rare old stringy sort, 

 easily pulled out ; and other fields noAv extremely clean had 

 been just as full of root-Aveed. The soil is A'ery deep, and as 

 fertile as deep, and therefore very deep culture ansAvers Avell ; 

 farmers here thinking that farmers in other parts of England Avho 

 are content Avith 5 and 6-inch ploughing, must certainly be 

 asleep. Mr. Hawking had a piece of seeds in 1863, all grazed 

 and treated alike : part Avas steam-ploughed, 1 inches deep 

 (the slices cut as Avide as they Avere deep, so that, Avhen turned 

 one-fourth over, they lay square, flat side to flat side, and level on 

 the top, missing the hollow spaces left under the slices in the 

 customary " angle" ploughing) ; the other part of the field Avas 

 horse-ploughed 5 inches, that is, just half the depth. All Avas 

 sown Avith wheat; and in harA^est not only shoAved the steam- 



