Steam Cultivation. 
the sale of one-tliird, or nearly one-half of his stock of horses,* now 
become unnecessary, by the saving of their keep, and the increase 
of his crops. But before the tenant can do all this, the landlord has 
on his part much to do. Mr. Chute's example must be followed. 
Unhappily steam is not generally applicable to this northern 
district in its present state. A great deal of preparation is first 
required. Those favourite double hedgerows must be grubbed, 
the trees must come down, the ditches must be filled up, the 
fields must be thrown together, the boundaries straightened, and 
the whole must be drained (it is useless cutting up wet mould, 
either by steam or any other process), before steam can show its 
power. To take and lay out a whole lot of steam tackle in an 
irregular field of half-a-dozen acres, requiring short turns, is an 
absurdity. The giant would no sooner get to work than he would 
have to slacken speed, or he would run into the anchor. Again, 
farms must be consolidated, and holdings made larger. It might 
almost be said that no quantity of arable land under 250 acres 
can authorize the outlay required for implements, and what may 
be generally called dead stock under the modern system of 
improved farming ; but certainly no occupation under that size 
will pay interest on the cost of 600Z. or 800Z. for steam-engine 
and tackle. This, then, is the sufficient excuse of the woodland 
farmer. His landlord must do a great deal before he can do any- 
thing. He must cease to be a woodland farmer, before he can 
be a steam-cultivator. 
The neglect of steam in the chalk district, where there is 
scope and verge enough, is otherwise to be accounted for. Some 
of the ploughing can be done with two horses (and as yet this is 
cheaper than steam), but a dry time for working the clays is as 
indispensable here as elsewhere. To cut these when wet is worse 
than labour lost. The slices do not split, but contract and harden, 
and lie about all the summer afterwards in baked lumps as big as 
the horses' heads. The rain does not soften them, the sun does 
not warm them, the air does not sweeten them, the frost does not 
pulverise them : they are closed to all good atmospheric influ- 
ences. This is ti'ue of all clays, but specially of chalk clays. 
Probably the clialk farmer would say that his flock pays his 
rent, and that his present means of cultivation enable him to 
raise much sheep-food. Besides, there is some uncertainty in 
the minds of all agriculturists, not as to the benefit of steam, but 
as to the best of the many conflicting methods of applying it, 
and whether what is best now, may not be shortly superseded ; 
an obsolete set of steam tackle is not like an obsolete plough or 
* The folio-wing are actual reductions of horses, consequent on the use of 
steanx: J, §, |, % f,, ' ; the average is ^, or nearly 
