Steam Culiivation. 
613 
power to attach the drag to the plough, and thus do the work twice 
over in a place. This work of 8 acres a day will cost 5s. per acre. 
Scarifying we can do at the rate of 16 acres a day with a drag attached. 
This would cost 2s. 6(?. per acre. 
The fii'st work I have mentioned, with plough and drag, I should 
estimate to cost 15s. per acre if done with horse-power. The second 
work, with scarifier and drag attached, if done with horse-power, I 
should put at 7s. 6(?. per acre. The ploughing would be done 6 
inches deep, and the scarifying 10 inches deep ; and the cultivation 
by steam would be far superior, for I consider one operation with 
steam to be equal to two by horse-power. I think that when steam 
comes to be more generally used, and you pay the men for the woi'k 
done by the acre, instead of, as at present, by the day, it will be a 
great boon to the farmer. 
I consider that a crop of beans affords the best means of getting 
the soil into proper condition immediately after it has been turned up 
deep by steam cultivation. 
The advantage which steam-culture offers to the landlord, I am 
inclined to place very high, since I am of opinion that the value of 
land may be increased one-third by its use. 
I take it that a 14-horse set will do as much work in a day as 30 
horses. You can use it whenever the weather is fine, and it eats 
nothing when not at work ; the steam-horse never tires. Tou can get 
forward with your work by making longer days, and it might perhaps 
be advisable to use two sets of men ; the work done is far superior to 
any done by horse-power. 
The land, after steam-culture, drains very much better. I know the 
case of a piece of land which had been di-ained 14 years, yet it lay 
quite wet under horse and oxen culture ; . but since it has been culti- 
vated by steam I have never seen a drop of water on its surface, 
though no alteration has been made in the drains, which are now just 
what they were 14 years ago. The soil is a particularly tenacious 
clay, of the Oxford kind ; and this land you can drain without using 
pipes. 
I believe that all land would be greatly improved by the application 
of steam-power, but I particularly vdsh to draw your attention to its 
use on light lands ; for it is upon the light lands of England that I 
consider there would be the quickest return, inasmuch as by one 
operation you would entirely change the nature of the soil. You 
prevent its burning or frying up, and you could thus render a great 
quantity of land capable of growing beans which is now altogether 
unsuited to that crop. I put the cost of ploughing by steam, with a 
drag attached, at 5s. an acre ; the cost of scarifying, with drag 
attached, at 2s. 6d. an acre ; and the cost of digging, that is, working 
Towler's digging-breasts, at 5s. an acre. The cost of draining, with a 
mole as large as a quart decanter, at the dej)th of a yard, without 
pipes, I put at 3d. per chain, or 10s. an acre, at 40 chains to the acre, 
one pole, or 16|- feet apart. 
One great advantage of steam cultivation is that, when the day's 
work is finished, and the fii'e is put out, there is no baiting, and no 
