Clakke.] Re'port on Steam Cultivation. 311 



The course of cropping has not been altered ; the plan pursued 

 being to keep seeds down for three years, and then alternate 

 white corn and forage crops, — meaning beans and turnips. 



In reply to the question about number of horses, the schedule 

 simply says : " A squire must always have more horses than a tenant- 

 farmer, as he has so much estate work, as bricks, coals, &,c., to 

 be carted." And respecting productiveness of crops, it says : "I 

 can scarcely write anything here, except that one field was began 

 to be ploughed by steam in '64 in the autumn ; when the men 

 had done about 2 acres, the machinery, 6cc., came to shocking 

 grief, and the rest of the field was ploughed by horse-ploughs, 

 and sown with oats in the spring. But through all the growing 

 time of 1865, the oats showed almost to an inch where the steam- 

 plough had worked. We never made any difference in the 

 stacking, so I cannot report the increase of corn and straw, but it 

 doubtless was considerable." 



This gentleman's experience is one more caution against in- 

 vesting in second-hand engines that have seen much service. 

 But as we have already related, there ai'e cases (for instance, 

 when a new tackle has had only a few months' wear) in which 

 " the trade might do." 



No. 91. Mr. J. Wilson, of Woodhorn Manor, Morpeth, 

 Northumberland. Eight miles east of Morpeth, and within 

 half-a-mile of the rocks which beat back the waves of the 

 German Ocean, is situated the village of Woodhorn, with its 

 Manor House, the residence of Mr. Wilson. The farm, of 

 450 acres arable, and 250 acres grass, for the most part level, 

 with low fences and not much wood, has a strong loam soil, 

 with some portions of lighter loam, resting upon the clay of the 

 coal measures, Avhich clay in some of the fields forms me staple 

 soil. The very big, powerful horses here employed make pair- 

 horse ploughing at 6 to 8 inches' depth ; fallow-ploughing, at 

 9 inches' depth, requiring a team of three. 



The inclosures on half the farm average 20 acres each ; on the 

 rest, 10 to 15 acres each ; their angular and irregular shape being 

 due in a great measure to the passing of three public roads 

 through the farm. A projected railway, also, is laid out to cross 

 this occupation, and when the work has been completed, the 

 necessary squaring and straightening, as well as grubbing-up of 

 fences, will be at once executed. The drainage has been done 

 4 feet deep, at 21 to 24 feet distances apart, and the old ridges 

 were partly ploughed flat and levelled before the steam-engine 

 came. The drains act well, and, with the exception of a vein of 

 stiff clay land, the soil dries quickly after wet — a decided im- 

 provement having been observed since the use of the steam-plough. 

 We should add that the annual rain-fall here exceeds 30 inches. 



