Steam Cultivation. 
615 
by driving the plough — say at the rate of three and a-half miles an 
houi- — it is thoroughly broken, and the cultivation much forwarded. 
• I am inclined to think there is very little land in England that 
cannot be cultivated by steam. If the land is in ridges, I woidd 
recommend that it should be ploughed lengthways, and not levelled 
too quickly. I have a neighbour in Gloucestershire, Mr. Eeed of 
Eikstone, who has an extremely hilly farm, some of which he says is 
as steep as" the roof of a house ; it is also bad to cultivate, fi"om the 
many large stones in the field ; yet he has worked it with steam very 
successfully. 
The wear and tear of the steam apparatus would be principally on 
the clip-driun, the anchor, the rope, and the porters ; and comparing 
it with horses, for harness, blacksmith's bills, shoeing, farriery, &c., I 
consider the wear and tear in the two cases to be so nearly the same 
in amount that I could scarcely say which cost most. But then, in 
addition to the other advantages which I have enumerated, the risk 
with the steam-engine is not so great as the risk with horses ; horses 
are subject to all sorts of illness; they are often attacked ^-ith in- 
fluenza, and frequently in the harvest time of the year I have known 
one-half my horses disabled and rendered unfit for work : not so with 
the steam-engine, which is always ready. You can also turn the steam- 
engine to account by thrashing, grinding, and doing other things 
during the winter, when your horses are standing idle and living 
expensively. 
Now, I would by all manner of means recommend any gentleman 
wlio is inclined to embark in steam culture, at the first onset to buy 
suf&cient power ; for no more manual labour is required when you 
have 30, than when you have only 5 or 6 horse-power. Whatever 
be the working power of your engine, i-pon a rough calculation the 
power of four horses is consumed in the draught of the rope and 
friction, and this amount will have to be deducted from the force 
applied to the soil. 
The question, then, in my opinion, resolves itself simply into one 
of 12 cwts. ot coals versus the keep of 30 horses. You get your work 
done at the proper time. You have no ridge or furrow ; for no water 
fiirrow is required. Drilling can be done in the same direction in 
which the land is ploughed ; and this is a matter of very great im- 
portance, for I have seen one-third more of wheat grown in the same 
field, when it has been drilled the same way in which it was ploughed, 
that when it was drilled across the furrow. There is, moreover, a 
saving of seed, and you have no difficulty with the horse-hoe. I have 
been in the habit of having all my crops horse-hoed for years past. 
We use a Smith of Kettering's horse-hoe at the rate of ten acres a 
day with one horse : a most serviceable implement I have found it, 
deserving more notice than it has received. Having no furrows, we 
have no diflSculty ydth the reaping machine ; the one I use is 
Cuthbert's. Neither have we any difficulty with the mowing-machine 
(Burgess and Key's), whilst the carting can of course be done much 
better. You have yet this further advantage, no sheep die from being 
cast on their backs in furrows. By the use of steam, I believe summer 
