318 
Farming of Hampshire. 
Kimmeridge clays, and even on the lighter soil of the great oolite. 
From inquiries I have made in South Berks and the Avestern 
portions of Surrey and Sussex, I am led to believe that as many 
as fourteen more are at work there, or thirty in all, on the 
borders of Hants ; and yet I cannot find that one, up to this 
time, has been bought and used on the mainland of Hants ! * 
This is not said by way of repioach. . The farmers of Hants 
will not be slow to adopt this, or any other improvement, 
when once assured of its practical utility. How, then, is this 
backwardness to be accounted for? It cannot arise from dif- 
ference of soil, for three-fourths of the lands here, consisting 
of clays and clay-loams, are as well adapted as any around to 
steam cultivation ; and there is no land to which steam would 
bring greater gains than to that in the northern division of Hants, 
none which stands more in need of this aid. There, the farmer 
has a heavy soil and much couch. Hence his scanty crops, his 
open fallow, worked with four horses to a plough. Could he 
follow a good system of autumn cultivation, could he but eradi- 
cate the couch, and cultivate deeply in a dry time before winter, 
a bright future of dry, healthy seed-beds, and consequently of 
improved rotations and increased crops, would lie open before 
him. But no draught-power he now possesses, no amount of 
horse-flesh that he can keep, will eziable him to do the necessary 
work. The opportunities are so few, that he has not the time ; 
and, if he had, the pounding of the horses' feet would only further 
consolidate the subsoil, and plant yet deeper the noxious weeds, 
surely to reappear another day. Hence he is compelled to put 
up with a shallow furrow, with a filthy surface, and with half a 
crop ; while at the same time he supports a team nearly double 
that which is recjuired elsewhere. Now, what could he do by 
steam ? Immediately his harvest is over, he could seize any 
lavouralile opportunity, and do as much in one day as with four 
horses in seven, do it thirty per cent, cheaper, and in every way 
better. The land would be untrodden, the tillage would be 
deeper and more regular, the preparation for the seed-bed incom- 
parably superior. He would have contiol over the work, both in 
respect of time, of quantity, and of quality. He would be supe- 
rior to circumstances, instead of being, as now he too often is, 
their victim. 
The cost of the apparatus would not be alarming, it would be 
repaid in a season or two (according to the size of his farm) by 
* Since this was written, three sets are at work in Hampshire. Mr. liancashire 
of Micheldever claims the distiuctiou of being the first agriculturist in tlie county 
who has purchased a steam cultivator for work on his own farm. He uses Howard's 
tackle ; Mr. Cooper, also of Micheldever, has Tasker's ; Mr. Curtis of Hambleton, 
Fowler's. 
