Clakke.] Report on Steam Cultivation. 361 



" wet-weather " work for the apparatus and men, — hitherto a 

 weak place in " the hiring system." Mr. Smith has also begun 

 to subsoil hop-yards between the rows of polls, — a single tine on 

 the cultivator going 2 feet deep with a share at bottom of 

 18 inches breadth. 



No. 113. On Wednesday, November 14th, we met by appoint- 

 ment in Wakefield ten gentlemen connected with "The West 

 Riding Steam Ploughing, Cultivating and (Thrashing Company, 

 Limited," that is, nine directors and Mr. Charles Clay, the 

 secretary ; and, cordially appreciating the importance of our 

 undertaking, they responded with the utmost liberality of feeling 

 to all our inquiries, and freely submitted their books to our 

 scrutiny. The accounts are kept in the most exact and business- 

 like style, properly audited, and we saw the banking-account, 

 stating the amount of the " reserve fund." 



This, the earliest Company of the kind in the field, started and 

 was "incorporated" in 1862, and its "Memorandum of Asso- 

 ciation and Articles," consisting of 93 articles agreed to, form a 

 model to be studied by persons wishing to form similar Companies. 



The capital is 3300/., in 11. shares, subscribed by 80 share- 

 holders, and all " paid up " as far as shares have been issued. 

 The first " set" that started in work was a double-engine 12-horse 

 Fowler apparatus, with winding-drums, while another "set" of 

 double 14-horse engines began in September, 1864. And the 

 position of the finances may be stated in a iew words, as follows : — 

 The gross earnings are about 900/. a year, of which about 200/. 

 a year is for thrashing. The total payments, exclusive of great 

 repairs and replacements, are about 600/. a year ; leaving a surplus 

 of 300/. At the half-yearly meeting of the directors, held on 

 August 2, 1866, a dividend of 5 per cent, was declared, say 

 150/. ; thus leaving 150/. more for the "reserve fund." In three 

 years (besides paying the dividends) 350/. have been paid into this 

 fund, and the banking-book, at the date of our visit, showed a 

 floating balance of 120/. 



A modest dividend, of course, is preferable to mere solvency ; 

 but on learning the history of the Company's transactions, under 

 a pressure of unfavourable circumstances, we admitted that the 

 fact of a dividend at all having been realised clearly proved the 

 profitable nature of the undertaking itself. The machinery has 

 had nearly every difficulty to contend with. Its employers have 

 been, for the most part, small farmers ; it has worked for many 

 men occupying under 100 acres each, even on 30 or 40-acre 

 occupations. The inclosures are miserably small for steam 

 cultivation, those worked in having averaged only 10 acres 

 apiece ; and though the engines profess to undertake nothing 

 "under 8 acres," they have ploughed G and even 4-acre fields. 



