:)()0 Beport on Steam Cultivation, [ClaiUvE. 



instances tliey have abstained from purchasing fresh horses, 

 which, without the help of our steam-cultivators, they would 

 have been compelled to do. We use, almost exclusively, the 

 cultivator, because farmers like it best. We have also used the 

 plough this year, but only to plough on the Wolds, turning over 

 large seed-fields, 5 inches deep, for wheat — farmers, in these 

 instances, being behindhand with their work. 



" Our plan is to arrange beforehand, in general terms, with a 

 number of gentlemen in one vicinity, to do a certain amount of 

 work in a season, and mostly finish off the work on one farm 

 before going to another. Most of our work is on light land, on 

 the Wolds and Cliff, in 20 to 50-acre fields. Our charges for 

 cultivating vary from Is. to 15.s\ per acre — the farmer supplying 

 coals and water. Strong land is often worked twice over, and in 

 large fields averages 10s. per acre for each operation. 



" The system of hiring steam-ploughs on the double-engine 

 principle is the only one that is adapted to bring steam cultiva- 

 tion within the reach of small farmers. Where three, four, or 

 more small occupiers in one locality agree to hire an apparatus, 

 they can obtain it at the same cost as the larger farmers. 



" All our customers tell us that, as long as they can hire steam- 

 cultivators at a reasonable charge, they will not buy tackle them- 

 selves." 



No. 112. The Herefordshire Steam Cultivating, Thrashing, 

 and General Implement Company (Limited), Capital 5000/., in 

 1000 Shares, began operations with the first pair of Howard's 

 engines in 1865, and a second pair in October, 1865 : at the end 

 of that year the Directors declared a 5 per cent, dividend, and laid 

 by a surplus of 91?. toward a Reserve Fund. The Report for 186() 

 is not yet published, but the manager informs us that they have 

 made a larger profit than they realised the first year. They work 

 the plough but little, the principal operations having been done 

 by the cultivator, whether on loam and gravel soils, on sandstone 

 shale, or stiff clay and marl, on lands where they have torn up 

 immense quantities of rock fragments, or on deeper soils where 

 the tillage has been 15 inches deep. The basis of the scale 

 of prices is \s. per inch depth. The engines have given every 

 satisfaction, in a desperately hilly country, and cost very little 

 in repairs. Mr. Philip Smith has applied his engineering 

 ability to carrying out some novel operations. Thus, a mole- 

 plough is hauled by each engine, draining meadow-land 2 feet 

 deep, at 4-yard intervals, the mole-plough being of 4^ inches 

 diameter. The cost to the farmer is 1/. per acre : by previously 

 ploughing a deep furrow, a correspondingly deep drainage is 

 executed ; and the work is declared to answer exceedingly well. 

 The advantage of this draining to the Company is that it provides 



