Steam Cultivation. 
323 
after steam has been obliged to quit the field. We do not adduce 
this to the prejudice, but rather as an argument in favour of steam ; 
for though horse-ploughing mai/ be djne at such a season, yet it is 
clear, that if the soil is so wet that the steam-cultivator clogs or 
cuts into it, however possible it may be to continue horse-work, 
yet on clai/ soils it can only be labour lost, and worse than useless. 
In the year mentioned our steam-ploughing commenced early 
in April ; and although during the summer frequent stoppages 
arose through wet, the greater portion of the season's work was 
done then, as the total autumnal ploughing amounted to 45 acres 
only. 
The number of days in which the tackle was at work cannot 
now be stated with certainty ; but the average work done per day, 
including removals, was certainly under three acres. The total 
acreage ploughed was 309 acres, and the impression left on the 
mind at the end of our first year's experience of steam cultivation 
was, that it had not proved a remarkable success. 
But besides the wet season, there were other extenuating circum- 
stances to account for this bad work ; viz., that all the land had 
been drained the previous winter, and many stoppages arose from 
the plough getting embedded in the drains, sometimes so deeply 
as to require the use of the screwjack to help it out. The frequent 
occurrence of such accidents tended to make the engineer reckless 
in driving, so that occasionally, on finding the implement fast, 
he turned on the whole force of the steam (a pressure of 80 lbs.), 
and if the plough or rope did not succumb to the repeated tugs 
of a power little short of 20 horses, perhaps the anchor did, and, 
tilting over, rendered confusion worse confounded. 
Another fertile source of hindrance was from breakages, chiefly 
of shares and skyfes, which were fractured by collision with 
roots which had been left behind in grubbing up some miles of 
hedgerows when steam cultivation was adopted. Moreover this 
clay soil, when undrained, had necessarily been ploughed into 
high narrow ridges, with deep furrows, which very much hin- 
dered the working of the plough, because in crossing them, to 
secure cultivation in the furrows, it became necessary to stir the 
ridges to a great depth, whereby the working of the engine was 
made very irregular, and much wear of the working parts as well 
as loss of time involved. 
These annoyances, though seemingly small things, will yet in 
the aggregate be found of considerable importance, and such 
drawbacks will probably be encountered by many in the first 
stage of their experience, and more especially by those who select 
a clay district as the field of their operations. 
Where a hedgerow has been recently grubbed, before crossing 
its site with the steam-cultivator we now invariably have it deeply 
