Clarke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 353 



coal and water before the engines leave, a tank full of water 

 lasting four miles on the road. Mr. Smith began contract Avork 

 as low as 8a\ per acre, finding his own coal, but soon experi- 

 enced the folly of having made too low an estimate of his 

 expenses. He now charges 9^. up to I65. an acre, — say an 

 average of about 10.s'. 6f/. an acre, for different sorts of work, the 

 fai'mer finding coal and water. To avoid loss, it is necessary 

 to " charge enough " for " bad pieces." 



Engagements are made beforehand with several occupiers in 

 succession, and punctuality is studied, so that rather than disap- 

 point a customer who may be unwilling to wait beyond the 

 appointed day, Mr. Smith leaves a field half done. If a number 

 of farmers were to combine, oifering a certain total area, and so 

 much land each, then he could engage to do only a stated 

 quantity at once for any one man. And in that case, farm-horses 

 might be sold off, because the farmer would be sure of being 

 able to hire the apparatus. At present, the saving of horseflesh 

 is confined to lighter work and cheaper maintenance, the un- 

 certainty about getting any steam work forbidding an actual 

 selling off of teams. And this is simply for want of an arrange- 

 ment that might be easily entered into between half a score 

 of farmers and the contractor. (^See " The North Lincolnshire 

 Company " in Division 2.) 



Most of the tillage has been upon fair 3-horse land, and more 

 than half of it in a heavy clay district. The 14-horse " set " has 

 cultivated three acres per hour as an unusual feat, 2^ acres per 

 hour with the "drag" being good work. Excessively long days 

 are run in some seasons ; and once, in cultivating a light soil, 

 the engines executed Avithin an acre of 70 acres in three fields 

 setting down and taking up tackle six times in three days. 



Mr. Smith expresses himself satisfied with his business ; his 

 employers do more and more work with the tackle every year; 

 and, with good management, he considers that contract working 

 will pay, even on light land. In fact, on the Wolds, where a 

 couple of horses can plough IJ acre per day, he has done steam 

 cultivating 5 inches deep, that was profitable. But then, Mr. 

 Smith, formerly one of Messrs. Fowler's managers of show tackle, 

 is reputed as one of the cleverest and most energetic machinemen 

 in the country ; and, as he himself said to us, making the business 

 pay is "just a question of management." The very simplest de- 

 tails have to be watchfully superintended, and time most jealously 

 husbanded. Each field has to be previously inspected, and the 

 operations laid out according to its circumstances. Thus, if there 

 is a hill, the rule is to begin across the bottom, for ploughing, 

 turning the furrows downward ; but for cultivating begin across 

 the top of the field, because of easier turnings at the ends. 



VOL. III. — s. S. 2 A 



