336 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



consider the apparatus valuable ; but the bailiff was evidently not 

 in love with it. There has been a saving in the outlay for team- 

 work amounting' (according to our assumed standards of 44/. per 

 horse and 15/. per ox) to 444/. This is a great point, for the 

 whole cost of steam cultivating probably does not exceed a 

 fourth of this outlay. The effect of steam culture upon the land, 

 the management, and the cropping, was not so striking as Ave 

 have found it in some other cases; but still, the apparatus must 

 have been a source of very considerable profit on these farms. 

 That the simple forwarding of operations, and so on, must have 

 been highly advantageous on such land as this, everybody will 

 at once understand. However, steam cultivation on strong land 

 greatly varies in degree. A steam-tackle delights you or not, 

 like Uncle Tim's flute, " accordin' how you work it ; " and very 

 probably, had Mr. Smith, of Woolston, this identical sort of clay, 

 «S:c,, under hand, he would show his winter tilths all in 3-feet 

 trenches, open to the atmosphere to an amazing depth, with 

 tremendous crops sure to follow, and no fear whatever of spoil- 

 ing the staple by picking the lock of the " unknown country " 

 beneath. 



No. 102. Mr. William Bulstrode, of Mount Farm, Cookham 

 Dean, near Maidenhead, Berkshire, — occupying 300 acres 

 arable and GO of pasture, — is partner in a steam-tackle with a 

 neighbour, Mr. J. M. Gurney, of Pinkneys Farm, Cookham, 

 holding a farm of similar size. The surface undulates, being 

 in some parts rather " hilly ; " and the fields range from 6 

 to 60 acres each, with no alterations of fences, or roads made 

 for the accommodation of steam-power. A portion of the land 

 consists of sharp gravel, part of loam on a chalk subsoil, and part 

 of very stiff clay. 



In May, 1861, a Clayton and Sliuttleworth's 10-horse power 

 double-cylinder portable engine was purchased, at a cost of 300/. ; 

 with a Howard tackle, — including windlass, 1760 yards of steel 

 rope, 5-tined cultivator, a set of drag-harrows, 10 extra porters, 

 4 extra snatch-blocks, and 4 extra anchors, — which cost 253/. 10s. 

 Thus the whole investment was 553/. 10s. During the first two 

 years the apparatus was let out on hire ; but this practice was 

 abandoned, owing to the excessive wear and tear involved in 

 travelling about, and in being put to the worst pieces of work 

 that farmers had to do. Hence, the repairs have been greater 

 than they would have been if the tillage of the two farms alone 

 had been adhered to. In five years, the cost for re])airs to 

 porters, snatch-blocks, windlass, engine, &c., amounted to 100/., 

 or 20/. a year. The smaller repairs are executed by a smith 

 and iron-founder at Maidenhead ; but duplicates of parts most 

 liable to break are generally kept on hand, so that the acci- 



