o48 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



fall of the clay (November IGtli), we could see nothing of the 

 land, and could sympathize with the occupier, whose energetic 

 management was so confronted by the season that his barley and 

 oats were still uncut. As 12 miles of fences have been stubbed 

 on 860 acres arable, his fields now range from 10 to 50 acres, 

 and his boundaries are straightened ; this work of improvement 

 having added acres to the available tillage-area of the farm. 

 The soil is loamy, on a drift formation, with great numbers of 

 boulders, which have to be taken out, while fresh ones are con- 

 tinually found. The land is most of it strong pair-horse ploughing. 

 The farm is under-drained, and drains well ; and flat-ploughing was 

 the custom of the country before steam came. The steam-engine 

 smashes up stubbles, and cross-cultivates in spring ; and in 

 general it does all the heavy work of the four farms ; being here 

 made " the slave," and not the " auxiliary." The steam-plough is 

 used only to turn over the clover-lea (J inches deep for oats, and to 

 do the last tillage just before sowing turnips. The work, Mr. 

 Kay says, is forwarder ; but he does not obtain either a smaller 

 labour-bill, or any particular increase in cropping. It should be 

 stated, in connexion with this last fact, that Mr. Kay had prac- 

 tised 10-incli deep ploughing by four horses to a plough long 

 before steam came, and the land being always adapted to turnips, 

 he could make no increase in the breadth of roots. 



He formerly employed 13 horses in winter, and 15 in summer, 

 the additional summer horses running off in straw yards, at little 

 cost, in the winter, — he now uses 8 in winter, and 13 in summer ; 

 but, if he had only one partner in the steam tackle, he could 

 make 10 horses do in summer. With single-horse carts, this 

 team-force is quite sufficient for despatching all his harvest 

 carriage, and working two reaping-machines as well. Moreover, 

 the very powerful hoises formerly required, are now either re- 

 placed by lighter ones, or, at least, kept at less cost. 



We called upon Mr. Seymour, one of the partners in the 

 steam-tackle. His testimony was that he could plough more 

 cheaply by horses, and that steam had not improved his crops a 

 bit. But he confessed that his land was entirely unsuited for 

 steam cultivation ; and that rock and innumerable stones had 

 proved a sore trial to the machine : still he had become a partner 

 for the sake of aiding the introduction into the neighbourhood of 

 what might benefit farmers of land in a more kindly situation. 



Mr. Rowlandson's 300 acres arable consist of a strong loam, 

 taking 4 and even 5 or 6 horses to plough 8 or 9 inches deep ; 

 the surface generally level, and in fields of 8 up to 40 acres 

 each — many old fences having been taken out, and, in some 

 cases, new ones planted. As an illustration of the trouble and 

 expense incurred from the stones — the enemies of steam cultiva- 



