400 Five Years Progress of Steam Cultivation. 
' Nome and Adilress. 
Lord Beiners, Key- 
thorpe, Leicestersliire. 
Mr. E. Roberts, Berden 
Hall, Bishop's Stort- 
ford. 
The Earl of Leicester, 
Holkham, Norfolk. 
Mr. A. A. Young, Or- 
lingbuiy, Northamp- 
sliii'e. 
Mr. Cooper, Fen Drny- 
ton, St. Ives. 
Jlr. Maijoribanks, Faw- 
ley Court, Henley-on- 
Thames. 
quicker after rain : in fact, I have been 
drilling on clay land in wet weather when 
my neighbours could not get upon their 
gravelly or brashy land." 
" The great advantage I find to be that, when 
the ground is as hard as a rock, and it is 
■ impossible for any number of horses to do 
the work, I have ■with the ' diggers ' burst 
the land up 9 and 10 inches deep." 
" Though we have no furrows, our veiy 
tenacious heavy land is much drier with- 
out them than when it was ploughed by 
horses." 
On a strong alluvial soil lately reclaimed from 
the sea, " I find that one ploughing or 
smashing \vp of the stubbles, if done directly 
after harvest, when the land is diy, at a 
time when no hoi'se-jDOwer could be em- 
ployed, is quite sufiicient for a spring or 
summer crop." 
" The ' digger ' makes a summer or winter 
fallow at one operation ; the ground is so 
thoroughly disintegrated that, after due 
exposure to the weather, .nil that is again 
wanted is one crossing wth a cultivator or 
a heavy harrow to clean and leave it a per- 
fect seed-bed. Compare this with the end-* 
less working of a summer-fallow under the 
old system." 
" Steam-ploughing is so effectual that I con- 
sider that all work done by the end of Sep- 
tember improves the land three times more 
than the cost of ploughing." 
" The soil (hght land upon chalk) ajipears 
very much improved in texture by the 
deep cultivation; and the deep i)loi>ghing 
and early sowing are more liavom-able to the 
wheat." 
With Messrs. Howard's Apparatus. 
Mr. W. Pike, Steving- 
ton, Bedford. 
" My farm (principally poor, strong, hilly, 
clay land) was laid up in three-yard ridges, 
with water-gutters drawn across the ridges 
to take off the water. Since I have steam- 
cultivated it (now more than five years) I 
have done away with ridges and furrows 
entirely ; my fields arc all laid on the flat, 
and during the wettest season I have never 
seen any water stand ujx)n them. I am 
always forward with my worlv ; .and the 
few horses I now keep cost much less per 
