368 Report on Steam Cultivation. [Claeke. 



sequence than the saving of time ; that clay land can he flattened 

 and yet drain well, that the annual cost of steam tillage on a farm 

 is generally less than that of the horses it has displaced, and that in 

 most cases an increase of produce, in some instances as much as 

 8 bushels per acre, has resulted from steam cultivation. We 

 may state, as our general conclusion, that steam tackle, whether 

 of Fowler, Howard, Smith, or other makers, is now so far per- 

 fected and settled in form and details that it may be classed 

 among old-established, standard farm-machinery, and no longer 

 among the novelties of the day ; that the expenses in repair, 

 wear of rope, etc., are now so moderate as to be amenable to 

 the ordinary estimates of wear and tear made in the case of 

 ordinary implements ; that, as a rule, steam culture gives satis- 

 faction to its adopters. For, while more or less of success in 

 economy of tillage or increase of produce, marks almost every 

 instance contained in this Report, the failures or cases of doubtful 

 or neutral result, are easily explainable. So that we have arrived 

 at this general conclusion, — Steam cultivation in the main answers 

 well ; and here and there, where anybody has tried it and given 

 it up, we are quite sure fi'om the success of so many men in all 

 parts of the country and under every varying circumstance of soil, 

 situation, and climate, that there must be an explanation of the 

 fact, either in the fault of the manager or the inefficiency of those 

 particular pieces of machinery, not affecting the credit of " steam 

 tillage " at all. 



One fact has become very patent to us, that, while farmers in 

 some neighbourhoods have largely followed the example of a suc- 

 cessful steam-plough man, in many instances they have considered 

 themselves warned off by the failure of an unsuccessful case. 

 Thus we have lighted upon a large farm of between 600 and 700 

 acres, under an educated and intelligent manager, where, never- 

 theless, steam cultivation appears at a sad discount. The greasy 

 clay, with small stone in it, was said to be deep-drained, the 

 pipes lying in solid clay : the steam cultivator had levelled the 

 old high-backed lands (probably much too fast) ; and we found 

 the farm, during very wet weather, to be in anything but a well- 

 drained condition, water standing in various places. The farmer 

 maintained that that sort of land will not drain if laid flat : there 

 may be soil too tenacious to do this, and, as our Report records, we 

 have found varying pieces of evidence on this point in different 

 localities ; but we have our doubts as to the efficiency of the 

 drains themselves upon this particular farm, which certainly 

 does not lie under a remarkably rainy sky. The normal force of 

 24 horses had been reduced to 16, which we saw at plough, very 

 starved and weak ; in fact, the occupier frankly admitted that he 

 last year killed ]0 horses with hard work. The crops were 



