212 
Application of Steam Power 
burr or *' clench." A strip of a few yards' breadth was ploughed 
by horses for the sake of comparison; but the only difference 
perceptible is in the rather less proportion of stubble or dead 
rubbish exposed upon the surface. A 29-acre piece of wheat, 
after beans, also looks well and clean, though sown without 
ploughing. The bean-stubble was torn up 6 inches deep by the 
ihree-tined steam-grubber, at the rate of 7 or 8 acres a day, and 
crossed with the broader implement, then, after a while, harrowed 
and drilled. 
In another field, 32 acres of very heavy soil indeed, the upper 
half is barley, after a bean-stubble, grubbed by the steam- 
cultivator, and sown without ploughing ; the lower part is a 
healthy plant of wheat, after a clover lea, ploughed with three 
horses in line. The adjoining field of 35 acres is fallow. The 
lower portion bare-fallowed for barley, received its first plough- 
ing late in winter, or in early spring ; this being 7 inches deep 
Avas very laborious work, as 5-inch ploughing is always done here 
v/ith four horses. It has been ploughed five times, and had two 
scarify ings, all by horse-labour; the manure, about 15 loads per 
acre, is in the ground, and the next process will be simply 
harrowing and sowing the barley. This land is wet and amazingly 
sticky to the feet, forming a contrast with the similar soil of the 
last field, which, after the steam-grubbing and absence of tramp- 
ling, is considerably more light, spongy, and porous, though, 
indeed, not so recently drained. The upper part of the fallow- 
break has produced (with superphosphate and guano) some good 
green round turnips and a proportion of swedes, which are being 
eaten on the ground by sheep. The portions of this lolded land, 
already ploughed, have turned up in a tough, wet, and cohesive 
state, fit only for growing quality of barley without much yield ; 
evidently it would have been in a lighter and .better condition if 
broken up with the steam-cultivator. 
I now come to 35 acres of fallow, in which the advantage of the 
steam-cultivator is most striking and wonderful: 15 acres of this 
field, in rather a foul condition after tares (being a low wet bottom, 
naturally " running to twitch," a small ineradicable variety), were 
steam-grubbed, and again crossed by steam, but unfortunately not 
until the latter end of November, so that there was not time to 
cleanse it: but the rubbish is left on the top ready f(;r extraction and 
removal when dry weather arrives. The other 20 acres, however, 
have been brought into an admirable state in tiie cheapest and 
most efifectual manner. The piece of wheat-stubble was grubbed 
and crossed by the steam-cultivator in the hot weather, and after- 
wards ridged up into drills or "stitches," about 27 inches wide, 
with a double breast-plough drawn by horses. It lies in a bcauti- 
