302 
The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
Agricultural Society. It completes the narrative, and shows the 
experimental nature of this attempt to frame a good agreement, 
to state that the successful one has been superseded, after further 
experience, with the full sanction of its author. Lord Lichfield's 
new agreement, which is on the point of completion, is well 
drawn and practical. 
Steam-Cultivation. 
Steam-cultivation is represented by a very few sets of tackle. 
Smith's has been working on Lord Hatherton's Home Farm for 
some years, and I saw it steering its way in rather difficult work, 
where part of the extensive park had been ploughed up for tem- 
porary cultivation, and the trees had been left. Howard's tackle 
is still doing strong work on a farm of the Marquis of Anglesey, 
at Sinai Park, where the Royal Agricultural Society's reporters 
saw it in 1867, and has since performed a very novel feat in 
breaking up the heather on some portions of Cannock Chase that 
are being brought into cultivation. The small size of the farms and 
the limited extent of arable land are drawbacks. Nevertheless, five 
sets of Fowler's ploughs and engines are available, if required, 
since they belong to a small company of Staffordshire gentlemen, 
though they are at present employed on the larger fields of other 
counties. Mr, Webb, of Smallwood Manor, is the principal 
mover in this company, and he has purchased one set which will 
no doubt be confined to the county, and used in connection with his 
steam mole-plough. His price for ploughing 7 inches to 10 inches 
deep varies from 12s. to \bs. per acre, according to the size of the 
field, and the nature of the soil. Cultivating once costs 10s. to 13s., 
twice over 18s. to 21s., the farmer finding coal and water ; but 
of 14,000 acres of work completed, 12,000 have been cultivated. 
The Staffordshire Agricultural Society, established twenty-five 
years ago, divides the county into districts, appoints a com- 
mittee in each, who offer prizes out of funds placed at their dis- 
posal by the general committee — for skilled labour, ploughmen, 
drainers, &c., and for good cultivation ; and, until the cattle- 
plague diminished the number of its subscribers, prizes open to 
the county were offered for the best crops of mangold, turnips, 
&c. These are discontinued for the present. Landed proprietors 
are allowed to compete for prizes offered for stock, not for good 
cultivation. These prizes have been a decided stimulus to agri- 
culture, and the meetings and gatherings have helped the work 
of general improvement (such as the drainage of estates), by 
drawing attention to such subjects. A local society at Cannock 
has been in abeyance since the cattle-plague, but will probabl}' 
resume its show this year. Lord Anglesey and others have 
offered prizes for good cultivation. A Chamber of Agriculture 
