Clarke.] Report on Steam Caltivatwn. 309 



ploughed wheat to be the best crop, but, on thrashing out, it 

 yielded 12 bushels more corn per acre than that on the shallow- 

 ploughed part. Mr. Hawking says, moreover, that the horse- 

 ploughed part is better land than the other. Stranger still, 

 the deep steam-work Avas done immediately before drilling, 

 and the shallow work was done a month earlier. 



The course of cropping is alternate; but Her Majesty's 

 tenants are bound by restrictive articles, so that they cannot 

 produce as they would ; and Mr. Hawking is not therefore 

 at liberty to vary his rotation, even though the steam-plough 

 enabled him to do so. The steam-engine smashes up stubble 

 for the root-crop, and tills part of the turnip-fold for barley. 

 Part of this is followed by seeds ; part of the barley-stubble is 

 steam-tilled for beans ; and the steam-engine makes the bean- 

 stubble into a seed-bed for wheat. Of course, no man can say 

 in the first four years occupation of his farm how far his crops 

 are improved by steam tillage, but the crops have been considered 

 very good, and Mr. Hawking's opinion is that the roots have 

 been more benefited than the corn. 



We may add one or two notes that we made on the spot. 

 Labourers here have 12.9. a week and house-rent, amounting alto- 

 gether to about ] 55, a week, while young men are boarded and 

 lodged, and paid a yearly wage. 



Mr, Hawking has contrived a reel, placed in a cart and made 

 to revolve by spur-wheels from the cart-wheels, by which arrange- 

 ment the rope is laid out or coiled up again for travelling, without 

 wearing it by dragging along the ground. However, in its 

 present form, this is too heavy a thing to be commonly used. 



Mr. Hawking, a very practical man and good manager, pro- 

 nounces steam cultivation to be superior to all other systems upon 

 well-drained land ; but he thinks the conclusion of experience is, 

 that, on a farm having less than 500 acres of arable, it is not 

 advisable to purchase an apparatus. He would like to " get rid 

 of the anchor," which causes such a loss of time in shifting from 

 one field to another. And to do this without an excessive outlay on 

 a farm of this dimension (225 acres arable), it would be neces- 

 sary for him to start either a Steam-Ploughing Company or to 

 join in partnership with another farmer having an engine, so that 

 the two engines could till together ; and when, not in the field, 

 one engine could thrash and grind at the homestead, Avhile the 

 other might travel with a thrashing-machine to contract jobs 

 round the neighbourhood. 



No. 90. The Hon. Payan Dawnay, of Beningbrough Hall, 

 York, has at present in his own hands about 1000 acres, in four 

 farms lying apart, being "land run out by tenants." The arable 

 is about " two-thirds more than pasture," chiefly strong soil, some 



