408 
Steam Culture. 
in 1859, ploug^hetl 4 J acres per day to a depth of 12 inches. 
This was on a frce-workinf^ sandy loam capping the chalk.* 
Fowler s Ctiltivator for breaking up fallows and tolieat stubbles. 
— Under this system the plough is generally preferred to the culti- 
vator ; although Mr. J. King finds, in Warwickshire, that the 
smashing up of all seeds at midsummer, and of wheat and bean 
stubbles after harvest, is especially approved of by those who 
hire his implement, although it does not appear either that his 
charge is lower, or the area tilled larger, than where the plough is 
used. When the cultivator is used to cross work already ploughed, 
it is calculated that it will go over nearly 10 acres, but some autho- 
rities state that dragging only 4^ inches deep may be effected 
more cheaply by horse than by steam power. When a bean 
stubble is broken up, the quantity stirred will be about 7 acres. 
Afr. Smit/is Cultivator. — With this implement and an effective 
8 -horse-power engine provided with a double cylinder, working 
on strong land, about 5 acres of layer or stubble may be smashed 
up to a depth of 7 or 8 inches in a day ; in crossing the same 
work 8 acres may be got over. This statement is based upon 
Mr. Smith's own estimate, corroborated by Lord Hatherton, who 
gives a general average of 6 acres at a depth of 12 inches on a 
lighter soil ; of Mr. Pike, who, speaking from long experience, 
assigns from 5 to 6 acres to breaking up to the depth of 7 or 8 
inches ; 8 acres to crossing ; and from 10 to 12 to scarifying at 
a lesser depth with this cultivator also. When dragging is to 
be subsequently done at a less depth, practical and experienced 
owners sometimes prefer horse-power. 
When one of these implements, belonging to Mr. P. Faux, 
was tried on Whittlesea-mere — on that light peaty soil as he in- 
forms me — it stirred 12 acres per day to a depth of 7 or 8 inches, 
and that without going into the field. t 
Thus we arrive at the conclusion that, on the average, the cul- 
tivator does not accomplish much more than half the work indi- 
cated as the theoretical maximum attainable. Is this surprising? 
Does not the analogy of steam-threshing bear it out ? 
On the Amount of Work done in a Season. 
Let us consider this question rather from the point of view of 
a farmer who confines himself in the main to cultivating his own 
farm than that of an owner of a cultivator let out for hire, 
i In that case the amount will be limited, 1st, by the season 
* Unless the supply of manure at hand -was large, perhaps a greater weight of 
roots would have been grown if the furrow-slice had not been so thick, and a 
subsoiler had worked below. 
t In this district excellent new roads have been made, whilst some of the 
adjacent fields will hardly bear a horse's weight. Such a cultivator, on broitd 
wheels, is specially adapted for such a localit)'. 
