320 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Clarke. 



wonderful tilth for a seed-bed, owing to the depth pierced by the 

 tines and the absence of horses' feet. Indeed, Ave consider that 

 this steam-harrowing- is not taken advantage of by steam-plough 

 farmers half as much as it should be. It is a great mistake to 

 imagine that setting a powerful steam-engine to such a light- 

 surface operation as harrowing commonly is, must be trifling 

 with a huge force — somewhat like putting a Samson to tin- 

 tacking down a carpet or hanging a lady's muslin curtain ; for, 

 in reality, scarcely any work of a steam-tackle gives more satis- 

 faction than the harrowing, both from the excellence of its 

 performance and the great area got over per day, 



Mr. Langdale's 5 men cost 18s. each per week, and his 3 boys 

 6.S. each per week ; but though labour is dear, coal is cheap — 

 the engine burning half a ton a day, at 7s. per ton, A removal is 

 a heavy job, taking 9 horses about 2 hours, the roads being hilly, 

 and the whole of the apparatus having to be moved at one shift from 

 one farm to another. The engine does the "thrashing, grinding, 

 and chopping " for all Mr. Langdale's farms ; and, at different 

 times, the tackle has cultivated on six neighbouring farms, doing 

 the work twice over for 21s. per acre. 



Mr. Langdale's brother, at Newton Red House, informed us 

 that the land had been levelled before steam culture was intro- 

 duced, and being well under-drained lies pretty dry, owing to 

 the steam tillage leaving it so light. They have no dead-fallow ; 

 always get turnips and potatoes, and have now been enabled by 

 steam to considerably enlarge their breadth of roots. The crops, 

 generally, have been more productive, and Mr. Langdale says, 

 " I find manures to act better " : this being precisely accordant with 

 the general experience that artificials give their greatest effect only 

 in finely-worked mould, which cannot be obtained in perfection 

 on strong land except by steam-driven implements. Mr. Langdale 

 formerly employed 27 horses, which he has now reduced to 20, 

 and these are kept at less expense per head. 



The tilling-machine is always at work during the proper 

 season, except in wet or bad weather ; and its owner is warmlj- 

 in its favour as an economiser of time and expense, a promoter 

 of the growth of equable crops, and the means of making both 

 clay -land and lighter-land farming remunerative. 



No. 93. The Right Honourable Lord Vernon, Widdrlngton 

 Estate, Morpeth, Northumberland. The old castle ruin at Wid- 

 drington contrasts oddly enough with a snug scientific covered- 

 homestall hard by, and with another newly-introduced improve- 

 ment — a gabled school-house wherein we witnessed a throng 

 of village childi'en " saying lessons " to their mistress and her 

 monitors ; and here, in full prospect of the distant Cheviots, 

 gleaming white with a mantle of early snow, we could not 



