21G 
Application of Steam Power 
drill ; and, when the time comes for manuring', the farmyard 
muck will be spread along the rows, the ridges split with the 
double mouldboard plough, and the land will be ready for 
sowing with mangold or turnips. Of course, this trenching-up 
for winter is no new husbandry, but the steam-cultivator has put 
it in the farmer's power to treat all his fallows just as he does 
his kitchen-garden ground, only without the minute perfection of 
the spade or digging-fork. 
In November, 1858, while inquiring into the merits of 
different systems of steam-tillage, 1 had an opportunity of wit- 
nessing some extensive operations of the Woolston apparatus in 
the hands of Mr. C. Randall, of Chadbury, near Evesham, 
Worcestershire. Evesham, in its beautiful vale watered by the 
Avon, is famed for its rich garden-soil, — a sand-loam, on which 
are grown acres of asparagus, onions, cabbages, cucumbers, 
green peas, and potatoes, with orchard-trees above them ; yet so 
;ibrupt is the demarcation between the new red sandstone and 
lias formations, that Chadbury, three miles distant. Is situated 
upon the strongest of heavy clay. Mr. Randall has farms on 
both descriptions of land, his occupation near Evesham consist- 
ing of good turnip-land loam and gravel, with patches of heavier 
soil intermixed. Witliout staying to ,detall the vast improve- 
ments by drainage, clay-burning, and high management ; de- 
scribing the mode of feeding half-bred sheep (crossed from the 
Shropshire) in yards bedded with a dry absorbent layer of red 
burnt clay ; or referring, with the zeal of a sportsman, to the 
renowned breed of greyhounds ; I proceed to a few particulars 
respecting the steam-culture. 
Mr. Randall employs a Clayton and Shuttleworth's 8-horse 
engine, a windlass constructed by Messrs. Humphries of Per- 
shore, a 3-tined Woolston grubber (with fish-tail shares of 
9-inch width), manufactured by Messrs. Howard, and a pair of 
" twins," or heavy drag-harrows, suspended behind a beam 
mounted on wheels, so that the harrows can play up and down 
like the levers of a drill, this implement being adapted to the 
rope-traction by means of a llglit fore-carriage contrived by 
Mr. Randall himself. He proposes also to use a 5-tined grubber, 
so as to effect a larger breadtli of work without leaving any 
portions unmoved. 
On licavy clay, on very steep and lofty hill-sldcs, at Chadbury, 
where 4 horses can hardly plough at all going up and down, and 
must either take their plougli up empty or work horizontally 
along the side, making bad work, the steam-cultivator answers to 
admiration ; and in cleaning the foul land of his lately acquired oc- 
cu])ation Mr. Randall has found Its assistance invaluable : indeed, 
he was anxious to practise deep tillage, but dare not attempt it until 
