Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 319 



the half-journey is accomplished in 120 seconds. But then, as 

 there are two 6-feet implements simultaneously travelling, a 

 stripe of land, 6 feet broad, has been cultivated the whole length 

 of the field between the two engines. The comparison is this : 

 — the double-engine system has tilled a foot breadth (of the whole 

 length of the field) in every 30 seconds ; whereas the double 

 implement and double-engine system has tilled a foot breadth 

 (of the same length) in every 20 seconds. In other words, 

 the new plan is capable of working as large an area in 2 hours 

 as the old plan can do in 3 hours ; or, in other words again, 

 you may henceforth get your 6 weeks' work of autumn-tillage 

 finished in 4 weeks, — and for much less money ; because, while 

 there is an additional ploughman, with a slight increase in the 

 coal, oil, and water-bill, you have only two-thirds the number of 

 days on which any expense at all has to be incurred. 



We believe that Messrs. Fowler also find no difficulty in working 

 two implements at once by two engines with clip-drums, and 

 " slack-gear " upon each implement. If so, this at once gets rid 

 of the wear of rope too commonly occurring upon winding-drums, 

 especially when the coiling is horizontal, that is, upon drums 

 having vertical axes. The troublesome point about Messrs. 

 Fowler's new arrangement is the liability of the ropes to be in the 

 way of " turning the plough at the ends ; but this is obviated by 

 keeping one engine "a little forward," and the other "a little 

 backward," so as to hold off the " back rope " or return ply, from 

 passing too closely to the implement. Messrs. Coleman and 

 Morton's engines, with coiling-drums at the boiler side, would be 

 well adapted for the " double-double " plan of working : they 

 already drive two implements at once, meeting half-way, but 

 with a single engine and anchorage. 



No. 92. Mr. S. Langdale, of High Espley, near Morpeth, 

 Northumberland (a manufacturer of manures and chemical pro- 

 ducts at Newcastle, as well as an agriculturist), occupies about 

 600 acres arable, and 300 of pasture in three farms, High Espley, 

 Low Espley, and Newton Red House ; consisting of various 

 descriptions of land, for the most part heavy, but with portions 

 of light soil and gravel. Since August, 1864, he has worked a 

 Howard tackle with 3-furrow plough, cultivator, ridging-furrow 

 plough, and set of harrows, driven by a 10-horse engine. The 

 prime cost, altogether, was about 800/. ; but no account has been 

 kept of the repairs. In fields averaging about 20 acres apiece, 

 the cultivator does 7 acres per day of 10 hours, and more in a 

 long day, the depth of work 8 to 10 inches ; the plough turns 

 over 5 acres a day. The ridging-body has been used with ad- 

 mirable effect in trenching -up cultivated fallows for winter 

 exposure ; and the harrows are spoken of as making a really 



