Steam Cultivation. 
619 
say that his was a very tenacious soil. Now, some yeai-s ago, I 
myself adopted that system, for the salfe of letting as much air into 
the drains as possible. Since that, however, I have had as few 
ojienings as possible ; for I invariably found that if there was not 
sufficient water in a pastm'e field, the cattle would come down and 
tramijle the ditch, and so break up the drains : when these opened 
into a ditch the ground criunbled away. I understand from Mr. Euck 
that he employs the same number of horses as before — that is 12, and 
lias sold off 56 oxen, which is certainly a very gi-eat gain. The system 
of 14-horsc power and heavy tackle is not perhaps suited to very 
hilly farms, especially where there are angles in the field. I quite 
agree that one of the first things that ought to be done is to enlarge 
your fields to the size of 20 to 30 acres. The subject of breakage 
Mr. Euck has not mentioned. That which I experienced at the 
outset with Fowler's implement was very great, so much so, indeed, 
as to render its use most imeconomical. Since that, Mr. Fowler has 
sent me another set of implements, and I have had scarcely any 
breakages, excepting the eyes of the ropes, which are constantly 
coming out. Now Howard's ropes have no eyes. I have one of 
their cultivators also, and nothing can possibly do the work better. 
When steam cultivation first came in, I felt that Fowler's system of 
traction was the best, and that it ought to be engrafted upon Smith's 
mode of cultivation as it was then, which is now imjirovecl by Messrs. 
Howard, so that nothing can do better. The great advantage I find 
to be this, that when the ground is as hard as a rock, and it is im- 
l^ossible for any number of horses to do the work, I have with 
Fowler's diggers burst the land up 9 and 10 inches deep. 
Mine is a 12-horse engine, but I cannot do anything approaching 
the quantity of work which Mr. Euck mentions. From 2 to 2^ acres 
a-day -^ith the diggers is as much as I have ever been able to accom- 
plish, and about 5 acres with the cultivator. Mr. Euck has also 
alluded to the drag, but he did not tell us what sort of drag he uses. 
I have recently employed a rotating harrow, which was sent me by 
Messrs. Ashby Smith and Co. of Stamford, and it is one of the best 
implements, when attached to a steam cultivator, that I know of. As 
I imderstand Mr. Euck, his land does not require any rolling ; but so 
far is this from being the case on my strong land, that I have never 
required so much clod-crushing and rolling to make my land a proj^er 
seed-bed for mangold as dm-ing this year. First of all I use Fowler's 
digger and then his plough ; and, afterwards, I crush and I'ecrush it 
with Howard's cultivator, using it at different times according to the 
state of the land.* 
Colonel KiNGSCOTE, M.P. : Being a light-land farmer in Mr. Euck's 
neighbourhood, I feel an interest in the opinion he has exjiresscd 
that upon light lands the steam cultivation would pay better than 
* Lord Berners explains that his cultivator (Howard's') draws in its wake on 
either side, a drag and a rotatoi-y harrow, which are made fast by a chain to a 
long iron bar placed across the centre of the cultivator. When the land's end is 
reached, both drag and harrow are detached, and moved one or two feet aside. 
The cultivator returns between them, and they are again made fast and drawn 
nearly across the field. 
